Pakistani seller logs growing appetite for gems

Pakistani jeweler Aqeel Ahmed Chaudhry keeps a record of every client who buys gemstones from him. He said he thinks his clients' stories will become part of the history and culture of his jewelry brand, Winza, which he founded two years ago in China.

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, a Chinese couple visited his store in Shanghai, and the husband chose a ring with a 3-carat yellow diamond priced at 220,000 yuan ($34,839), Chaudhry said.

"The wife said the gift was too expensive, but the husband insisted on buying it for their wedding anniversary. He said that he was really grateful for all the sacrifices the wife had made for the family," he added.

"Eventually, I gave them a big discount because it was such a touching and romantic story."

Pakistan is a source of many precious gemstones－rubies, emeralds and sapphires in particular－but many in China's growing middle-income group have not been aware of this even as their appetite for luxuries has increased.

Chaudhry, 41, born in a family of jewelers, wanted to tap this market through the China International Import Expo.

"I went to the second CIIE in 2019 with my friends from a Shanghai association for gemstones. I found it such a big trade event and decided to exhibit my jewelry at the expo the next year," he recalled.

The next year, Chaudhry booked a 36-square-meter booth and launched the Winza brand at the CIIE. Soon after the expo, he opened his first store on Nanjing East Road, the best-known pedestrian commercial street in Shanghai.

"Last year we continued our exhibition at the CIIE, and a lot of people came to appreciate our goods. We had about 300 or more visitors every day," he said.

"When there are a lot of tradespeople together at one event, a comparison goes on, so people got an understanding of our products, designs and collections. They were able to compare us with any other brand available there."

After the six-day annual expo closes, Chaudhry said, he will move part of his jewelry to Hongqiao Pinhui, an import commodity exhibition and trade center within the bonded area of Hongqiao Central Business District. A bonded area is an area under Customs control, where duties don't have to be paid on goods until they are sold.

Zhu Jing, deputy general manager of Hongqiao Pinhui, said the center has recently been expanded with 80,000 square meters of additional exhibition area. That will allow more exhibitors to have a place to display their wares after the CIIE, Zhu said.

Chaudhry said he sees a promising future for Pakistani jewelry in China as more and more Chinese buy jewelry for weddings and anniversaries. "With such a large population, the demand is always there. All we need is to have our designs better meet their tastes," he said.

Sales of gold or silver jewelry with gems by big retailers in China reached 304.1 billion yuan in 2021, up 29.8 percent from the previous year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The total annual sales for jewelry in the Chinese mainland have exceeded 610 billion yuan since 2019 and remained there despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Gems and Jewelry Trade Association of China.

Besides importing and marketing gems, Chaudhry has also collaborated with a local team to process and work on rough gemstones he imports.

"The local Chinese craftsmanship is fantastic as well. Once we have a strong standard for the design and processes, they can finish and complete it in a very detail-oriented way," he said.

Jiang Ziyi contributed to this story.