Bengaluru’s 150-year old jewellery brand, C Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers has taken a definitive step to stop offering cultured pearls which are suspected to originate from China, in their jewellery. China has dramatically increased production of freshwater pearls and has been cultivating pearls surpassing Japan in quantity over the last decade. C Krishniah Chetty gemologists will only stop procurement and use of Chinese origin pearls, and instead will use either Japanese or Venezuelan or Indian pearls in their jewellery.

"Although Chinese pearls are much cheaper and plentiful, the import duties must be increased to make it unprofitable and to discourage these imports. With the sinister possibility of China being squarely behind the global pandemic, we profess a total ban on use of Chinese Gems by Indian jewellery industry", feels Dr C Vinod Hayagriv, MD and Director of the 150-year-old jewellery group.

Origin disclosures have been taken seriously in the last decade by the company and it is important jewellers ensure origin tracking of the more expensive gems. Both for environment and political reasons. C Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers is adding more strength to its own production of jewellery and focusing on training artisans more vigorously.

In a strong statement, Chaitanya V. Cotha, Director C Krishniah Chetty Group said, “The   government should discourage Chinese imports and make efforts to strengthen the Indian industry.”

Although India may lose some investments, or exports to China, in the bigger scheme of things it's important to support Indian manufacturers and Indian products or alternative international sources. One cannot partner with countries which have sinister plots and plans that have put the entire world into turmoil. Though both Dr C Vinod Hayagriv & Chaitanya V Cotha had years ago traveled to China to explore direct imports of blue sapphires, today it is a different story.

Chaitanya further added that, “Although C Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers has been using man cultured Chinese pearls which are not natural, these were always considered inferior to pearls cultured in Japan. Hence we are happy not to use pearls of Chinese origin.”

Incidentally, to safeguard against Covid 19, the brand propagated and followed stringent safety measures for employees and customers at all the showrooms that opened for business after the lockdown.