International buyers are already in Teófilo Otoni, in advance of FIPP2009

The news from Teófilo Otoni is that buyers have already been in town for a week ahead of FIPP2009. My sources tell me that they have seen buyers from Germany, Italy, and Israel. In particular, the buyer from Germany was surrounded by sellers, meaning that he actually is spending some money.

Normally, the big buyers come in before the gem fair begins and buy all the good stuff early. However, current production of good rough continues to be very low. Good stones are not available in large quantities, except from the larger more established firms, with very high prices, except for aquamarines, which as I have written before, are as common as popcorn.

OK, this is just my opinion, but I will give it, anyway.

Firms that are well positioned to ride out the crisis (those who have managed their cash flow wisely and did not take risks and become overextended) are using this opportunity to buy for clients who are in the same situation, and they are also buying with the long-term future in mind.

It is my understanding that prices have declined only a little. This is where the laws of supply and demand come in. There is relatively little supply of good stones because mining production has been greatly reduced for several months.

I would tend to say that any real buyers are buying now to snap up what is left of production.

And these are the buyers who can afford to wait a long time for sales or who already have orders of some kind.

My good friend, Natasha Petrova, will be scanning the scene by this coming Friday.

At that time, she will be able to talk to the dealers and let me know how things went. I have also asked her to take some photos for posting to this blog. [This year, I had to make an unexpected trip to the States, so I will not be there, myself, as I had intended.] She has already told me that Russian jewelry companies have not placed any orders. [The financial crisis has hit Russia much more than other countries.]