ABOVE: Santiago, Chile.

The next stop for the Panama Diamond Exchange’s traveling roadshow is the Chilean capital of Santiago, where a delegation of visiting PDE members will meet with key representatives of the local jewelry trade from July 27 through July 29.

To date, 11 companies with offices in the World Jewelry Hub in Panama City have registered to be part of the PDE delegation, which will be led by Judy Meana, PDE Vice President, together with Lilibeth del Castillo, PDE Office Manager.

This is the fourth PDE roadshow to travel to South America in the past two months, with previous delegations visiting Lima, Peru; Bogotá, Colombia; and Guayaquil, Ecuador. The visits are part of the World Jewelry Hub’s two-pronged outreach program in Latin America, which includes periodic diamond and jewelry weeks bringing buyers to the World Jewelry Hub in Panama City, as well as roadshows taking PDE members directly into the region’s most important jewelry markets.

A highlight of the visit will be a B2B networking event on July 28 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Santiago – Vitacura, in the city’s business and commercial center. Featuring a presentation about the World Jewelry Hub and its development program, the event will provide the opportunity for delegation members and key Chilean jewelers to meet and schedule one-on-one meetings.

With its stable democracy, steady economic growth and a sophisticated retail infrastructure, in 2010 Chile became the first and only South American nation to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the exclusive club of 34 developed Western economies. Its government’s liberal customs policies enable the country’s retailers to attract buyers both locally and from the large neighboring markets of Argentina and Brazil, and it is an increasingly prominent jewelry supplier, with the annual total revenue of the sector forecast to reach $800 million by 2018, about double its value in 2010.

“Chile is a market that is firmly on our radar,” said Ms. Meana. “With a median per capita household income of $14,000, it is home to Latin America’s most uniformly affluent population, and that offers tremendous opportunity for the diamond, gemstone and jewelry sectors. The synergies that exist between our members and its jewelry sector are obvious. I firmly expect the Chilean trade to become a fixture both in the Panama Diamond Exchange and the World Jewelry Hub.”

Among the PDE member companies scheduled to join the Chile roadshow are: AA Diamondz, A Diamante Group, De Viany Jewelers, DHV America, GemDiam (KiranGems), Gran Sabana Diamonds, MP Diamonds, Niru Group, Rosy Blue, Shlophili, and Yakubov Group Panama.