Odishatv Bureau
Mumbai: With gold ruling at Rs 32,000 per 10 grams, the demand for costume jewellery is growing and is expected to touch Rs 11,000 crore by 2014, say experts.

"Increased adoption of the costume jewellery category, expansion in product offerings is expected to drive growth to nearly 20 percent. As such, we expect the market size to reach at least Rs 11,000 crore by 2014," Juvalia & You India founder and CEO Chaitanya Aggarwal told PTI here.

The drastic hike in gold and silver price in the span of an year is one of the main reasons of this shift, he said. "This ruling high price is changing the customer preference from fine jewellery to relatively inexpensive but equally flashy costume jewellery," he pointed out.

The imitation jewellery market is about Rs 7,000 crore in India, which is a USD 16 billion organised and unorganised market for precious, semi precious and artificial jewellery.

Globally, India is the second largest manufacturer of imitation jewellery after China with 8.30 pc world share. Indian costume jewellery has a huge demand in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and many Asian countries and the organised market is nearly three-fourth of unorganised sector.

This expanding costume jewellery market is increasingly driven by global fashion trends, Aggarwal said.

The availability of skilled artisans at low cost and base metals, faux gems and stones has encouraged the sector's growth in India, JewelsNext.com CEO Gaurav S Issar said adding that Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the important states for such products.

Imitation jewellery is largely made of brass, cast iron, nickel, plastic beads and stones, instead of precious metals and gems. It does not have resale value and is available at a range of - less than Rs 100 to over Rs 5,000.

FashionAndYou director (sales) Aasheesh Mediratta said a lot of brands like Carbon, Gili, D'Damas spawned out to feed this demand at the turn of the millennium but now boutiques such as Karigari, Pari have come to start staking claim.

Global brands like D&G and Juicy Couture occupy the top end and Guess, Fossil are popular with their bracelets, charms, pendants in the segment in India, he said.

Costume jewellery is equally popular in rural areas and the rural:urban divide is almost 40:60, he added.

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