Italian jewellers urged to set sights high

The chairman of Vincenza Gold Fair, Valentino Ziche, has told the Italian jewellery manufacturing sector that gold jewellers need to up their quality output to stay ahead of foreign competitors.

According to Reuters, Mr Ziche said that while production was still good in the European country, it was losing ground to new competition from countries with lower labour costs, such as India, China and Turkey.

Italy used to be a dominant force in jewellery manufacture, he claimed, but in order to retain this standard, manufacturers should be focusing less on lower cost production of gold jewellery and more on the high-quality end of the market.

"What our manufacturers have to do is to get rid of products with low added value which could be produced in the countries with low labour costs," Mr Ziche told the news agency.

"We must make a leap in quality and produce beautiful things of high value, distinguishable from those made, say, in Turkey."

Gold manufacture across the world has recently been affected by volatile gold prices on stock markets across the globe, although analysts expect the bull market of a few weeks ago to return before too long.