Hopes high for Arusha gem fair

Arusha. Preparations for the third Arusha Gemstone Fair (AGF) have been finalised and it will once again showcase its great potential for gemstones, now contributing significantly to national earnings. Organisers say local participants are expected to strike sales exceeding Sh6.9 billion generated during last year’s show, which enabled the government to earn S.227.4 million royalties.

The fair is organised by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals in collaboration with the Tanzania Mineral Dealers Association (Tamida), an Arusha-based body, which has spearheaded the multi-million dollar gemstone trade. Preparatory committee chairman Peter Pereva is upbeat on the success of the show, which will take place at the Mt Meru Hotel. “We are sure our sales will be higher and the show will bring more participants this year and exceed what we earned last year. We want to make this an annual international gemstone fair,” he said last week during a media brief.

Officer in charge of the mines office for the northern zone based in Arusha Alex Magayane, who is the secretary of the preparatory committee, said the government was interested in seeing local gemstone miners, dealers and traders brought face-to-face with international buyers and expand the market for their minerals.

According to him, by last week countries which have already confirmed their participation in the three-day fair include China, the US, Thailand, Germany, the UK, Canada, Japan and Russia. The past two shows have been dominated by gemstone traders from African countries and from major gemstone markets overseas. During and after the show, the overseas buyers will visit tanzanite mines at Mererani in Simanjiro District, Manyara Region, and gemstone lapidaries in Arusha. Tanzanite is a rare gem mined nowhere else in the world except in Mererani.

About 700 local and foreign gemstone dealers are expected at the show scheduled for November 18-20. Participants are also expected from neighbouring Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi and Zambia, which produce different types of gemstones as well like Tanzania.

Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar and DRC are among the leading gemstone producers in Africa. “Mozambique is rich in mineral resources. It has high quality rubies and tourmalines. Madagascar also mines rubies and sapphires, but has unique pezzotite which, as with tanzanite in Tanzania, is found there and nowhere else in the world,” the official explained.

Tamida chairman Sammy Mollel urged local gemstone producers and traders to turn out in big numbers with a view to seeking markets and technology for their products. “If we want to make the Arusha Gemstone Fair successful we have to strive for processed minerals, which meet international standards and find out from buyers what the market demands,” he said. He remarked that Tanzanian mineral products had to be competitive. The fair will be held alongside with a seminar and other discussions on the potential for gemstone minerals in Tanzania and its contribution to the national economy.

Tanzania is endowed with some gemstones, which besides tanzanite include green garnet, rhodelite, diamonds, tourmaline, emerald, rugby, aquamarine, sapphire, amethyst, zodiac, quartz and many others. Most of the gemstones are mined by small and medium-scale miners scattered allover the country.

Mr Mollel, who is a prominent gemstone dealer in Arusha, said Tamida had recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Thailand association of jewellers known only by its acronym TGJA under which the two bodies would cooperate in gemstone business.

Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, China and Phillipines are leading buyers of Tanzanian gemstones in Asia. The US is also one of the biggest markets for Tanzanian gemstones, others being Germany and South Africa.

According to Mollel, one of the objectives of the exhibition is to establish a gem centre for Africa in Arusha, given the rich gemstone resources the area is endowed with. Tanzanian gemstone sales abroad increased from the 1990s following large scale exploitation of tanzanite, but remains dominated by small-scale miners.