(via InColor, Summer 2008): Having suspended all precious stone exports on February 28, 2008, and then lifted the ban in May, the Madagascar government is still not allowing exports out. All exports of gem and ornamental stones, both rough and cut, were suspended, and effectively still are suspended since the new rules have yet to put into effect. Industrial quality stones can be exported but not mineral specimens. That has led to questions about what exactly constitutes a gemstone.
Cut stones can be exported, but must go through a 12-step process in eight different offices located in six different buildings. Theoretically, stones can be exported according to local officials, but in practice gemstone exports are close to zero. Nor surprisingly, only two exports of gemstones have left the country since July 14. Madagascar in the Indian Ocean is the fourth largest island in the world, and one of the world’s major supplier of gemstones.
The situation is so serious that a high-level delegation from Thailand led by the Deputy Minister of Commerce, representatives of the Chantaburi gem dealers and the Thai Gem and Jewelry Association visited Madagascar to request export licenses for gemstones that were purchased before the ban. Although the minister and the delegation requested permission from President Marc Ravalomanana himself, the answer was negative.
The reason for the ban is widely believed to be that he is furious about a huge emerald that was exported and is now on display in a Hong Kong art gallery. The president imprisoned the 66-year old female manager of the company that mined the stone on the grounds that she made a false sales declaration. She said it was a green beryl specimen, while Madagascar say it is an emerald. The mining company and its mining permits are in a legal battle with the government. Media reports say the state is trying to close the company and seize the mine.
Madagascar is calling on the Hong Kong police to bring an end to an exhibition on the island featuring what is claimed to the world’s largest emerald. Madagascar says the giant emerald, which weights 536 kilograms and is 125 centimeters long, 78 cm in depth and has a height of 55 cm, was illegally exported. The BaoQu Tang Modern Art Gallery in Tsim Sha Tsui has had the emerald on display since June 20. The huge emerald has been called Gift from Heaven by Chinese painter Chan Sicpo, who has lived in Madagascar for a long time. Other works by Chan Sicpo are also displayed in the gallery.
Madagascar is taking the matter so seriously that is dispatched police and justice officials to Hong Kong to deal with the issue. The country claims that emerald was illegally exported. Madagascar claims the emerald was sent out of the country via the French territory of Reunion Island. As for the Hong Kong gallery, it says the emerald was the property of a French company called Orgaco which successfully won a legal fight with Madagascar government over ownership of the emerald during the time it was in Reunion. It is not certain, however, that the decision by the Reunion court in favor of Orgaco is legally binding in Hong Kong. The gallery says the emerald was unearthed at an open-cast mine at Morafeno, in southeastern Madagascar last July.
The reason for the prohibition of rough exports is that Madagascar was giving up too much value added potential to foreign firms. Forcing all rough to be cut locally would encourage foreign operators, mostly Thai and Sri Lankans, to set up their cutting and treating works in Madagascar. Although the aim may be correct, it is widely regarded as being premature, since Madagascar has not developed the infrastructure to process anywhere near the volume of rough exports sent last year.
Although the Madagascar Institute of Gemology has trained almost 400 cutters in three years and there are other new training schools, the number is still tiny compared to the cutters processing Malagasy rough in Thailand and China. Those countries have vast gemstone experience, while Madagascar has had less than 20 years. Foreign companies have set up workshops on the island, and Malagasy cutting is improving, but it is still not yet a center for worldwide cut stone sales.
Useful links:
www.gemstone.org
www.baoqutang.com
TIM (This is Madagascar).
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