Originally Published: 2007-04-29

Hard-pressed by Chinese competition and snubbed by North American distribution chains, Italy’s goldsmithery is going through a rough patch in NAFTA area markets. In 2006, results in Canada have been unimpressive ($3.3 million in export, third trade partner with just over 7 percent), and forecasts for 2007 are not good.
However, the Italian Trade Commission was on the ball, with an initiative organized by the Montreal office (in charge of consumer goods) that also made a stop in Toronto. Seven showrooms participated last week in a gala for the launch of Sublime, a promotional event in support of Italian jewellery. The showrooms were Secrett, Lilianne’s and Robin, WatchCraft, Bandiera, Damiani, Jubilee, and David Edouard. Similar events were held in Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary.
“Italian goldsmithery industry is among the world’s best,” remarked Paolo Ponti, director of the Toronto office of ICE, “but in Canada it must cope with two big problems. On the one hand, there’s an extremely aggressive competition from the United States — the biggest trade partner of this country — and China, the main emerging competitor. On the other, we must be aware of a certain homogenization of the distribution. Big chains get the lion’s share, and with few exceptions they have driven out the smaller boutiques, which could represent a great opportunity for Made in Italy products.”
The only hope of avoiding getting crushed by this two-pronged competition is to reposition Italian manufacturers, targeting higher market segments. Maybe they could follow the example of the Torre del Greco industrial district, near Naples: over the past months, the production of cameos and coral jewels managed to attract the attention of North American consumers, thanks to the century-old tradition in this industry.

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