Dubai is among the 7 emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates. The city is well-known for its opulent shopping complexes, cutting-edge architecture, and vibrant nightlife. Dubai is dubbed the “City of Gold” due to the city’s rapid transformation from a sleepy Gulf port to a global business metropolis in just a few decades. However, the moniker refers to the city’s traders and buyers’ fondness for the yellow metal.
Dubai has established itself as a significant gold trading center by importing raw materials from Africa and exporting completed goods to buyers in India’s and China’s developing economies. Dubai controls 29 percent of the global gold trading market, with about 1,200 tonnes of the metals traded in the city’s gold souks. Traders have traveled to Dubai’s Souks for almost a century in pursuit of spices, pearls, and gold. With such a thriving trade, Dubai earned the moniker “City of Gold.”
According to Dubai Customs, gold commerce in the country was valued at 41 billion euros in the first nine months of 2020. After oil, it is the city’s most profitable export. Dubai has taken advantage of its geographic location by establishing gold vaults, jewelry-making factories, and refineries.
The majority of gold is traded in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates’ gold business. In 2016, the UAE imported gold from 46 African countries. Furthermore, half of the countries did not provide Comtrade with information on their gold exports to the UAE. The UAE has imported gold worth $7.4 billion from them, according to a statement.
Traders anticipate that gold prices will continue to grow, despite some stagnation, as governments and speculators look to the yellow metal as a safe haven in the volatile global economy. Aside from being a significant gold trader, the city is also a big retail market, with hundreds of gold shops. The Gold Souk, along with the other businesses in the city, is the most popular destination for traders, visitors, and locals wishing to buy gold. Customers can go in and purchase the jewelry of their choice, as well as have it customized. Dubai’s obsession with gold and jewellery stretches back to the nineteenth century when the city was a sleepy trading port. Dubai’s ties to the king of metals are legendary. During the years 1965-1974, the Middle East Gold and Jewelry business began in Beirut, Lebanon.
The civil conflict in Lebanon temporarily pushed commerce to Kuwait before the introduction of mandatory hallmarking and forced customs duty, which shifted it to the UAE gold jewellery markets. The UAE seized commerce from Kuwait, and it has grown steadily since then as a result of the UAE’s advantageous Customs Policy and supportive government programs for enterprises. With the government’s assistance, the gold trade in Dubai boomed, providing traders with a fantastic opportunity to expand.
Al Etihad Gold refines and transforms gold into investment-grade bars. They provide bullion banks and traders, as well as jewellery wholesalers. The entire procedure takes place on the premises. Al Etihad also has the Dubai Good Delivery accreditation, which is a worldwide quality and technical requirements benchmark. Another aspect contributing to Dubai’s success is its geographical location. The time zone is used by gold traders. It is thus one of the few exchanges in the globe that is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. local time, catching every time zone from Australia to the west coast of the United States.
The geographical position of Dubai contributes significantly to its status as one of the most admired gold trade markets. The city’s tax-free status makes it one of the most affordable places in the world to purchase gold. Gold refineries, storage vaults, and jewelry-making facilities import gold and melt it to create gold bars. Traders and investors can buy and sell gold on the commodities market through the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange.
The gold jewellery you purchase in Dubai is of the greatest purity. Through severe regulation standards, the Dubai Central Laboratories Department ensures the highest quality of jewellery.
There is a volunteer quality management group called ‘Bareeq’ that conducts a certification process for gold jewellery retailers that is controlled by the Central Laboratories Department. This organization has widely contributed to the endorsement and correct recognition of gold trading shops that meet good practice criteria. These criteria ensure the quality of the jewellery products supplied in the business and provide customers confidence that they are acquiring only world-class products.
The cost of gold jewellery is the most competitive in Dubai, as well as the lowest, due to the high amount of transactions that take place every day. The government’s low taxes, as well as the jewellery industry’s high turnover and low margin strategy, have resulted in the UAE and Dubai delivering the world’s best jewellery at rock-bottom costs. This is one of the reasons Dubai is known as the “City of Gold,” where wholesalers and retail buyers from all over the world come to find the finest jewels.