Thailand's Gemstone and Jewelry Export Industry

Author

Pimolpun Wuttikrai, Fontbonne College

Year of Award

1996

Degree

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

College

College of Business & Professional Studies

Degree Program

Master of Business Administration

Department

Business Administration

Keywords

world, trade, gem, market

Abstract

Due to the serious problems of unemployment and trade deficit that Thailand is now facing, how the gemstone and jewelry industry, which is highly labor intensive, can rapidly become a major source of foreign exchange is worth studying. This study aims at analyzing the factors contributing to the export growth of industry. The Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) has firstly been employed to indicate Thailand’s advantage in this trade. It has been found that the RCA of Thailand in the gemstone trade has been increasing, which indicates that Thailand is becoming more competitive in this trade. The competitiveness of Thailand in the gemstone trade is related to Thailand;s trade performance. That is, Thailand has exported to the countries with a growing demand for gems, namely, the U.S.A., Hong Kong, Japan, and Switzerland. Thailand has been exporting the types of gemstone which enjoy a growing demand, which are rubies and blue sapphires, in the form of loose stones, cut and polished (worked) gemstones. Related to the growing demand for gemstones from Thailand, domestic sources of rough gemstone are becoming depleted, especially of blue sapphires, which are one of the most in demand, but Thailand is not their primary source. The single most important source for imported rough, especially blue sapphire, has been Australia. From the starting point of gemstone export growth in 1973, the combination of heat treatment, craftsmanship, and low labor cost has made this industry grow on spite of the problem of depletion of domestic resources. With ample trainee craftsmen, the gemstone and jewelry industry can grow and meet this increasing demand. Corresponding to the increasing in number of established firms, and the number of the new firms, Board Of Investment’s promotion, a governmental selective promotion has been found to contribute to the export of worked diamond jewelry products. Foreign investment in Thailand has been increasing, There also has been some cost incurred from foreign investment. Higher production cost caused by foreign firms bidding for highly in demand gems and scare craftsmen in jewelry manufacturing is expected to be a problem by reducing the competitiveness of Thailand’s jewelry products. If Thailand can shift to jewelry exports, it is expected that the problem of the depletion of gem resources can be lessened, and more value added from jewelry manufacturing can be accumulated to the country. To this issue, it has been found that Thailand is likely to shift from inexpensive kinds fo gemstone to jewelry. But the shift to jewelry is mostly of low priced type using inexpensive gems. This is due to the increasing demand for this type of jewelry from Thailand. In the case of expensive gems, such as rubies and blue sapphires, the export still remains in the form of loose stones if availability of resources is not a problem. My thesis explores Thailand s gemstone and jewelry export industry. The thesis will explain the components of the growth of jewelry export industry.

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Recommended Citation

Wuttikrai, Pimolpun, "Thailand's Gemstone and Jewelry Export Industry" (1996). All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects. 173.
https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/all-etds/173