In a first, gold from Nepal shines in Dubai

Dubai - Nepali expats will now be able to buy their traditional jewellery from this new gold store in Dubai.

Nepal is just 2,870 km away from the UAE, and with around 300,000 Nepali expats living and working in the country, the expats feel very close to home. Yet when it comes to buying their traditional gold jewellery during the wedding season, they have to go all the way back to their home country.
This bothered Roshan Bhusal, an expat in Dubai who is originally from a small village in Nepal. 
"So many tourists from Nepal keep arriving in the UAE looking for cheap gold and they ask me where they can find Nepal-style gold jewellery. I have to shake my head," said Mr. Bhusan who moved to Dubai in 2011.

"UAE has something to allure everyone - with gold designs ranging from heavy Indian forms to Arabic and Italian creations. But there's little for expats from my home country."
That's when Mr. Bhusan decided he will be the first to open a Nepalese gold store in Dubai.  And since then the orders haven't stopped coming.
"Even before the inauguration of the store we received orders worth Dh200,000," he said as workers dragged cartons and boxes into the store.

Gold matters  Dubai has more than 800 retail stores; each on an average sells Dh10,000 to Dh30,000 worth of gold every day. In Dubai, about 50 per cent of gold jewellery is bought by the Asian community, 25 per cent by Arabs and the remainder by tourists. The price of gold could go up above $3,000 per troy ounce in three years, according to precious metals experts. Source: Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group

Yak and Yeti jewellery trading had a promising start on Friday in Bur Dubai in the presence of Mr. Netra Bahadur Tandan from the Nepalese Embassy in Abu Dhabi. As an opening offer, they are giving away a free gold coin weighing 250 mg with every purchase of jewellery worth Dh1500 till May 14, 2016. The manufacturing costs are also set lower than their competitors to give an initial boost to their sales.
"We offer jewellery in gold, silver and diamonds. Among the Nepalese traditional designs, we have chandrama, tillhari, jantar, the naugedi mala and purbeli kantha," he added.
Out of all the chic, dainty designs and heavy, complex patterns that are put out on display, 25% are from the Himalayan country. The remaining items are a mix of Arabic and Indian designs. With that Mr. Bhusan not only wants to woo Nepali expats but also intends to cash in on the Indian and UAE's local customer base. He is hopeful that the demand will soar with the growing number of Nepali expats in the Gulf.
"We have good tourists, we have GCC visitors and the Asian community continues to grow," he added, "Another branch is on the cards which will be launched this year in Meena Bazaar."  
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Dubai's idea of becoming a city of gold has found a silver lining over the last few years. The gold sales in the emirate grew by 5 per cent to about Dh14 billion last year from a year earlier. According to Dubai Gold & Jewellery Group, the sales will further rise by 5 per cent this year with consumers buying the metal as a savings product amid economic instability.
With an annual turnover as high as Dh80 billion, jewellers in Dubai have the leeway to offer competitive pricing for a range of designs and styles that are procured from all over the world. And Nepal is not an exception anymore.
- nilanjana@khaleejtimes.com
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Store owner Roshan Bhusal shows Nepalese traditional design 'tillhari' to he customers

Yak and Yeti jewellery trading had a promising start on Friday in Bur Dubai

Yak and Yeti jewellery trading had a promising start on Friday in Bur Dubai in the presence of Mr. Netra Bahadur Tandan from the Nepalese Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

• Gold and Forex

Nilanjana Gupta

nilanjana@khaleejtimes.com