Miner Fura Gems has launched the Fura Marketing Council (FMC), which supports the supply chain from rough to retail to promote responsibly mined gems and grow the coloured gemstone market.
Headquartered in Dubai, Fura Gems mines emeralds in Colombia, sapphires in Australia and rubies in Mozambique.
Its membership-based, rough-to-retail initiative aims to help develop the market for coloured gemstone jewellery with chain-of-custody transparency from sustainable and ESG-focused mines.
The effort is in response to a 2020 North American survey, which found that 93 per cent of jewellery shoppers love emeralds, rubies and sapphires, with 46 per cent saying they were likely to purchase these in the next two years. Dealers, manufacturers and retailers however were not investing in training, promotion and inventory to grow the category, the study found.
"The entire jewellery wholesale and retail industry has a billion-dollar opportunity right in front of them and they need help to tap it," explained Fura CEO Dev Shetty.
Precious coloured gemstone companies, gem cutters and dealers, jewellery manufacturers and designers, and retail stores around the world can apply to become FMC members.
Benefits include advertising funds, expansive sales training, layers of promotion assets for all levels of the industry and consulting support from the FMC managing group, MVI Marketing.
"We are creating the future of gemstones, opening the closed world of precious gems for the first time. We are funding trade support to the tune of over US$2 million in just the first year to launch FMC," said Shetty.
FMC will launch its marketing programmes in August.
