Gemstone sales are dead right now in Teófilo Otoni

hmm, I don't like to be the harbinger of bad news, but word on the street in Teófilo Otoni is that sales are dead. In Portuguese they say "parada" (stopped). Let me explain a bit. When things are not going well, no one admits it. They might say something like "sales are fine," "sales are ok," "sales are not bad," but no one tells you that they are absolutely terrible.

Except that now they are saying this.

You know what they say -- that in bad economic times the big juicy stones still move, the best still sells.

Except that now they are not selling.

Owners of mines were already laying off workers and production had declined dramatically a few months ago. It was nearly impossible to come across any good stones. Well, aquamarine is always available, the stuff grows like mushrooms.

In-house cutters were already at a minimum (one?).

A Japanese buyer (but was he buying? hmm, I will check) told a friend that things would not get better for 5 years. Personally, I think that is an exaggeration, but who knows? Certainly, no one is expecting things to go back to the way they were during 2004-2007 any time soon.