Weddings, an industry that came to a standstill because of Covid-19, is now back in swing. Wedding planners, hotel bookings, jewellery, food, etc are now back in demand.
In an interview with CNBC TV18, Surendra Mehta of India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) and Atul Chaturvedi of Shree Renuka Sugars spoke about the trends in jewellery and edible oils, sugar markets.
Jewellery demand
Jewellery had a very strong demand in the previous wedding season as well. Speaking on the estimates, Surendra Mehta of IBJA said that from pre-Covid level, they're expecting atleast 12-14 percent rise. "In India, weddings happen in two seasons. First is from November to February and second is from April to July. Although, the April to July season has almost double amount of weddings compared to November to February," Mehta said. He also said that 50 percent of jewellery demand comes from wedding and that this year has been phenomenal for jewellers.
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Speaking of what type of jewelry is in demand, he said, "Normally, lightweight jewellery used to be in demand, but now we see heavy weight jewellery in demand too. People have started spending more money on jewellery than on inviting guests." After Covid, people are realising the importance of jewellery, gold, yellow metal and hence the demand is rising. It might even cross the 14 percent expectation of IBJA," he said.
Commenting on where the major demand for jewellery comes from, he said "South India." "There is a passion for jewellery in South India. You will find even a small girl with either a bangle or a chain or a nose pin," he added. "60-65 percent of wedding jewellery is purchased in South India. North India comes at number 2. Then Western India, then Eastern India," he explained.
Speaking on the trends that are seen in jewellery buying this season from an industry perspective, Mehta said, "Average ticketsize would be around 75,000 to 1 lakh rupees. But this year especially there is a high demand of heavy bridal jewellery sets. The reason for this I think is lot of gifting is taking place. Not only the bride is buying jewellery but relatives, people attending these weddings are buying jewellry."
He also explained briefly that people buying silver has nothing to do with weddings, they do it for investment purposes. But consumers do spend a lot of money on diamonds in wedding season.
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Trends in sugar and edible oil during weddings
"Trend for commodities like sugar and edible oil is on the upside ever since Corona is in the pages of history," said Atul Chaturvedi, executive chairman at Shree Renuka Sugars. He also added that the company saw a rise in demand in Diwali.
"Now during the wedding season, the demand is rising exponentially. During these months demand for both edible oils and sugar has gone up by 15-20 percent. The reason for that is people are now getting married out of vengeance. During Covid they were bottled up in their homes and they're now doing it with vengeance," Chaturvedi said.
Speaking of edible oil imports from last year or pre-Covid to this year, he said, "We're now slightly above the pre-Covid years. We were importing about 10 to 11 lakh tonnes, 3-4 months back and now we're importing about 13.5 lakh tonnes on a monthly basis. This is also reflecting that demand has picked up."
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