Brazilian jewelry: color, style, and form.

• Author: Siegel, Sarah
• Position: ART

Much in the same way that Brazil's fashion industry has become globally known and appreciated, the nation's jewelry industry is also gaining international recognition for its innovation and style. Over the past fifteen years, Brazilian jewelry firms have begun to satisfy markets in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia with high-quality, design-oriented pieces. Brazil's wealth of colored precious and semiprecious gemstones, as well as the inspiration that designers take from its beaches and rainforests, gives it a special niche in the international jewelry market.

With a majority of the world's colored gemstones coming from Brazil, it seemed inevitable for the country to become a major player in the jewelry industry. Brazil produces and exports stones such as aquamarine, amethyst, citrine, emerald, topaz, morganite, rutilated quartz, rubelite, and tourmaline; a few, such as imperial topaz, are only available from single mines in Brazil. Brazil is also one of the world's major producers of gold. And yet, Brazil's move into the international world of fine jewelry has happened only recently. Strong performance both domestically and abroad ensures that it will only continue to increase its prominence.

Statistics show that despite the global economic downturn, the jewelry industry--mining, production, and retail--is a big business in Brazil. The industry enjoyed estimated gross sales of US $3 billion in 2009 and employs 310,000 people.

On the domestic front, Brazil's jewelry industry has experienced notable growth during a time when the luxury goods sector around the world is in decline. This can be explained by a number of factors--a healthy economy, a large population with growing purchasing power, and a general sense that the country is politically stable.

The recent victory of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil's presidential elections appears to show that the Brazilian people are hoping for continuity in leadership and policy. Rousseff, the chosen candidate of Brazil's very popular current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has little in the way of political experience but has promised to stay the course that Lula began. With those social programs and economic success came an improvement in living standards for many Brazilians, helping to fuel the growth of the domestic jewelry industry.

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The Brazilian Gems and Jewelry Trade Association " (IBGM) reports that approximately 30 million people in Brazil...