Pursuing gold standard

India’s silverware consumption almost trebled from 472 tonnes in 2012 to 1,222 tonnes in 2014 while silver jewellery offtake rose 47 per cent to 1,936 tonnes in 2014.

Silver Emporium, a leading player in silver and handcrafted silver artefacts, plans to promote certification and quality consciousness regarding silver in the country.

India is among the top five silver markets in the world but unlike its more illustrious sibling gold, silver continues to remain a highly unorganised industry.

“It is scattered industry with few organised players,’’ Rahul Mehta, Managing Director, Silver Emporium, told this correspondent. “As a consequence, there is lack of certification of silver items including jewellery. There is no hallmarking and many silver articles have cadium, which is banned in most countries.”

According to GFMS, a global metals consultancy, India’s silverware consumption almost trebled from 472 tonnes in 2012 to 1,222 tonnes in 2014 while silver jewellery offtake rose 47 per cent to 1,936 tonnes in 2014.

India, among top five silver markets in the world, but industry is unorganised with no quality certification.

Silver Emporium has the only fully integrated silver processing facility in India with capacity of 3,000 kg a day.

Plans to double retail outlets to eight this year and create national silverware brand.

Typically silver items cost between Rs.25 to Rs.200 to certify at hallmarking centres, Mr. Mehta said adding that Silver Emporium’s products were BIS hallmarked and have a 100 per cent buy-back assurance.

With the only fully integrated silver processing facility in India at Jaipur, with a capacity of 300 kg a day, the company sells its products to 400 retailers besides four owned retail outlets in Mumbai, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It plans to set up one more in Mumbai this month, one in Chennai in July and two more in Jaipur by October.

Silver Emporium wants to create a national silverware brand for jewellery and accessories, including for mobile phone accessories, buttons and walking sticks. These products would include gold and diamonds and are likely to be launched in September.

In a move to revive traditional silver craftsmanship, the company is identifying traditional Indian silver craftsmanship because it is a dying craft. “We want to promote it commercially. We have a few artisans now and aim to have around 50 on board in two years. We want to become the world leader in handcrafted silver articles,” Mr. Mehta said.