To: EL KABONG!!! who wrote (1554 ) 4/18/1999 6:36:00 AM From: 2MAR$ Read Replies (2) | Respond to
I keep seeing little posts here and there on ABFG, and as a gem & mineral dealer for 15 yrs have taken an interest in this issue, albeit, a "small" one. Since the decline in the asian econ, esp with regards to Thailand, where the majority of semi-precious and precious "rough" material is sent to be cut, the result has been catastrophic in the jewelry market. *ABFG* is a Madagascar source, and very nice material does come from there, but on no scale and in any superior quality, compared to the other main gem-specific source locals, that the top precious stones are known to come. The competition in the precious stones market is fierce, and with the falling prices of wholesale "rough" and "finished" stones due to glut, and extremely cheap(now) labor costs in Thailand. That could bode well for ABFG, except it bodes well for any other number of players in the arena of gemstone material. These claims from ABFG, to me of the possible big $$$, in the next five years appear to be, well, slightly inflated. They face huge competion from, CHINA, INDIA, BURMA,BRAZIL, NAMIBIA,TANZANIA , COLUMBIA,AFGANISTAN, and RUSSIA>etc.
