ARMENIAN JEWELRY PRODUCTION DOWN 50 PERCENT
By M. Alkhazashvili, translated by Diana Dundua

The Messenger, Georgia
July 25 2007

Jewelry and goldsmithing production in Armenia dropped by half between
the first half of 2006 and the same period in 2007, said an Armenian
Ministry of Trade and Economic Development official on July 23,
now amounting to just USD 71.5 million.

Gagik Lazarian, head of the ministry’s gemstone and jewelry
department, said plummeting production in the last couple of years
is due to a larger crisis on the world market. However, the jewelry
market is beginning to recover, he said, and it’s now important to
pass domestic measures to reinvigorate the industry. Armenia’s jewelry
sector can regain its 2004 heights of USD 3.3 million in production,
he predicted.

Lazarian says, according to the news agency Regnum, that the only
way for Armenia’s jewelry industry to recover is to turn its sights
on the Russian market-a process already underway, he adds.