There was a new show in Hong Kong this year where the Opal Association members had a total of 9 booths. Unfortunately the traffic flow was very disappointing but on the last day of the show the organizers paid everyone 300 HKD ($50 AUD) just to turn up, so thousands arrived on the last day and it took over a hour to enter the show. I did speak to most booth holders and four mentioned they might re do the show next year as they see the potential. The main show in the convention was also slow with many sellers reporting sales about half of last year and a lack of Chinese buyers. This is a very hard show to get a booth at but it has been suggested there will be booths available next year due to slow sales this year.
Whilst in Hong Kong we held an informal Opal Association meeting in a Japanese restaurant followed by a relaxing drink in a Mexican bar. We had discussions on the code of ethics and certificates of authenticity. There was a lot of interest in the association promoting the Opal Show circuit in Australia as this would benefit all Opal Association members.
We are working towards doing a press release in the new year which would be sent world wide and picked up by leading magazines. Stephen Ellerman has started to contact the local organisers for some input.
Japan’s Recycled Goods –
There is one Japanese company known for selling recycled jewellery and Opals at the Hong Kong show called Net Japan. I went to the booth with my brother Wayne Sedawie on the first day of the show when it opened but it took us 10 minutes to find it. When we arrived the crowd was over 3 people deep and we couldn’t get to the counter. I saw 8 trays of quality Black Opals but I couldn’t get served as other buyers were there before me. This was the first time I have seen a buying frenzy of gem stones with most buyers having trays full of stock and some trays would have been over $100,000 AUD. The buyer would spend 30 seconds inspecting each item and then place it in his tray. The company guarantees that their stock is free from treatments or faults. I was frustrated as I couldn’t get served so I left for a hour and came back. One tray of Black Opal which may have had 100 stones in it only had three left when I returned. In the global market it may not be a lot of stock but it is daunting to see over 400 quality Opals sell in a hour and I believe all for cash. All the stones were clean bright Oval domed ring stones. This type of stone is not easy to see at the Ridge. There were very few free shapes and only a few boulder stones.
Some members in the new show area were approached by Japanese selling loose Black Opals at reasonable prices. They admitted its all recycled Opals from liquidations pawning etc. The Japanese’s have a new word called ‘danshari’ which means selling un-needed things for a simpler life or selling inherited jewellery. The number of second hand dealers in Japan is nearly 750,000, so you can see it’s a growing business. Japan exports more diamonds to China than Israel which has a huge cutting industry. I did speak to a Emerald miner who said he had his worst show ever but I saw over 10 large Emerald rings sell at the Net Japan booth. This trend I believe will be with us for decades so our main market that use to be Japan, may be a competitor to us. Already Australian Opal sellers in China have this mentioned to them often. I suggest you do some research your self google ‘net japan diamond sales from japan’ etc.
The good news is that I didn’t see any real gems, they were mainly good commercial stone with the top stones around $18,000 AUD.
I do think as a industry we should stop saying there is no production or no one working on the fields, this will only make buyers not visit the fields and buy in the secondary markets. Lets talk up that there is more drilling and exploring and opals available on the fields.