Jewellers cry foul over NDTC diamond quotas

THE Jewellers’ Association of Namibia (Jassona) is up in arms with the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) over what it calls unfair treatment of some of the local diamond cutting and polishing companies.

In a strongly worded press statement yesterday, Jassona accused NDTC of giving Hardstone Processing a raw deal in its allocation percentages of rough Namibian diamonds to its 11 newly approved sightholders. Last week, Hardstone Processing (HSP) became one of the 11 sightholders who will be supplied with Namdeb’s rough diamonds by the NDTC for a period of three and half years.This deal should bring the total value of diamonds processed locally to N$2 billion by 2009.Jassona said it had come to its attention that Hardstone Processing was to receive a very small amount of rough diamonds from NDTC, which would jeopardise Hardstone’s business operations in Namibia.HSP – a Belgian-Namibian outfit – has been doing business in Namibia for the past six years and is credited for designing, producing and branding a Namibian cut called the Namibia Sun.”It has now come to light that Hardstone Processing will only receive a very small amount of raw material…Furthermore they are even required by NDTC to cut their links with their former suppliers of raw material.”Surprisingly, it also appears that some of the favoured companies have in fact not even started to establish a manufacturing plant,” said Jassona.The jewellers also claimed that some of these companies that were yet to start operations had actually received much higher quotas than HSP.Jassona Chairman Andreas Herrle told The Namibian in an interview yesterday that he had it on good authority that Hardstone Processing would be receiving rough gems worth US$3 million for processing, yet the company needed gems worth at least US$20 million to be viable.Herrle said local jewellers had decided to take a stand because HSP was their number one supplier when many diamond-cutting companies in the past did not want to sell locally.He said most of local jewellers’ diamonds came from HSP, with others coming from Namcot and Namgem.According to Herrle, HSP had invested heavily in training, branding and servicing the retail jewellery sector over the past six years.”If NDTC goes ahead with its distribution policy, this in effect could mean that a reliable Namibian source of larger high-value diamonds is lost to the local jewellery trade,” Herrle said.However, when reached for comment a manager at HSP was reluctant to say anything.He only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity and confirmed that the information HSP had received from the NDTC concerning the amount allocated to them was indeed ‘very shocking and very worrying’.He refused to say how much had been allocated to them, but said the objective of HSP was to do business in Namibia with local gems – and with this latest development, the company could be forced to close.He said HSP had approached Government on the matter.”We are confident it will be resolved positively,” he added.NDTC General Manager Kevin Goodrem dismissed Jassona’s allegations as incorrect information.He said NDTC would respond to Jassona’s claims in due course to set the record straight.Goodrem would not say how much was allocated to HSP, saying that was confidential client information.”Our selection process was a fair and transparent one,” was all Goodrem could disclose.Last week, Hardstone Processing (HSP) became one of the 11 sightholders who will be supplied with Namdeb’s rough diamonds by the NDTC for a period of three and half years.This deal should bring the total value of diamonds processed locally to N$2 billion by 2009.Jassona said it had come to its attention that Hardstone Processing was to receive a very small amount of rough diamonds from NDTC, which would jeopardise Hardstone’s business operations in Namibia.HSP – a Belgian-Namibian outfit – has been doing business in Namibia for the past six years and is credited for designing, producing and branding a Namibian cut called the Namibia Sun.”It has now come to light that Hardstone Processing will only receive a very small amount of raw material…Furthermore they are even required by NDTC to cut their links with their former suppliers of raw material.”Surprisingly, it also appears that some of the favoured companies have in fact not even started to establish a manufacturing plant,” said Jassona.The jewellers also claimed that some of these companies that were yet to start operations had actually received much higher quotas than HSP.Jassona Chairman Andreas Herrle told The Namibian in an interview yesterday that he had it on good authority that Hardstone Processing would be receiving rough gems worth US$3 million for processing, yet the company needed gems worth at least US$20 million to be viable.Herrle said local jewellers had decided to take a stand because HSP was their number one supplier when many diamond-cutting companies in the past did not want to sell locally.He said most of local jewellers’ diamonds came from HSP, with others coming from Namcot and Namgem.According to Herrle, HSP had invested heavily in training, branding and servicing the retail jewellery sector over the past six years.”If NDTC goes ahead with its distribution policy, this in effect could mean that a reliable Namibian source of larger high-value diamonds is lost to the local jewellery trade,” Herrle said.However, when reached for comment a manager at HSP was reluctant to say anything.He only agreed to speak on condition of anonymity and confirmed that the information HSP had received from the NDTC concerning the amount allocated to them was indeed ‘very shocking and very worrying’.He refused to say how much had been allocated to them, but said the objective of HSP was to do business in Namibia with local gems – and with this latest development, the company could be forced to close.He said HSP had approached Government on the matter.”We are confident it will be resolved positively,” he added.NDTC General Manager Kevin Goodrem dismissed Jassona’s allegations as incorrect information.He said NDTC would respond to Jassona’s claims in due course to set the record straight.Goodrem would not say how much was allocated to HSP, saying that was confidential client information.”Our selection process was a fair and transparent one,” was all Goodrem could disclose.