Kachin jade merchants are in flap over a border jade exhibition held by China. China show cased Burma's Hpakant jade at an exhibition in Jiegao near the Sino-Burma border in the country's southwest Yunnan province. This has upset ethnic Kachin merchants who rely on selling lower quality jade on illegal border jade markets on the border, said jade merchants.
For the first time, from December 3 to 7, China opened an international jade exhibition in Jiegao opposite Muse, the largest border trade zone in Burma. All raw jade stones at the exhibition were illegally transported from Hpakant (Phakant) jade mines in western Kachin state in Burma, according to jade merchants in Jiegao.
A Kachin merchant in Jiegao jade exhibition from Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state told KNG today, raw and finished jade stones and different shapes of jade sculptures are show cased in the exhibition but the prices are less than Chinese Yuan one million. The jade stones with price tags of over one million Yuan are kept in the companies' houses in Ruili (Shweli) near Jiegao and the customers are invited to the sale.
Five Kachin businessmen who own the jade company Yin Mau also attended the exhibition but the jade quantity was low and the total value for all jade stones was less than 300,000 Yuan (US $42,857), according to Kachin jade merchants at the exhibition.
With the opening of the jade exhibition in Jiegao, regular customers from Muse, Kunming and Guangzhou are buying raw jade stones from the exhibition instead of Kachin merchants who have small amounts of money and rely on Muse and Ying Jiang jade markets only, said jade merchants.
At the moment, four Kachin jade merchants' groups who are selling low quality jade stones from Hpakant jade mining city in Kachin state have arrived in Ruili jade market but they have problems with the jade they could not sell earlier, said jade merchants close to them.
The total carrying cost is about 30 million Kyat (est. US $24,590) for 20 to 25 tons of jade from Hpakant jade mines to Muse but they have lost regular customers in Muse since China opened the first jade exhibition in Jiegao on Wednesday, said Kachin merchants in Ruili.
There are several hundred Kachin jade merchants in Ying Jiang and Muse jade markets but they cannot sell their jade and are now terribly upset and have nothing for future business, a Kachin jade merchant in Muse revealed to KNG today.
In Burma, the ruling junta only allows selling of all Hpakant jade at its regular jade emporium in Rangoon, former capital of the country. Here every jade owner has to pay ten percent on each jade sale to the regime, according to jade traders in Myitkyina.
The Jiegao jade exhibition has invited jade businessmen from around the world but only Chinese jade businessmen from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have come, said Burmese jade merchants in Jiegao.
The Jiegao jade exhibition has been opened at a time when all jade markets in China are cold following the sanction on importing all gems from Burma by the US and the current financial meltdown.
