11 Million Gold Items Hallmarked in Bahrain

Marsad Al Dahab for Economic Studies has revealed that nearly 11 million pieces of jewelry, bullion, and precious metal products entered Bahrain’s official assay and hallmarking system between 2017 and the end of 2025, with a combined weight approaching 83 tonnes, according to an analytical review based on official data published by Bahrain’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The observatory explained that these figures do not represent retail sales to consumers. Instead, they reflect the volume of jewelry and bullion processed through the Precious Metals Assay and Hallmarking Centre, including locally manufactured products, imports, and items that received the official hallmark before being placed on the market. As such, they represent one of the most important official indicators of activity in Bahrain’s gold and jewelry sector, although they do not necessarily reflect total gold consumption or final retail sales.

The study drew on production reports issued by Bahrain’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce, together with annual performance and customer satisfaction reports released in subsequent years, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of the sector’s development over a nine-year period.

According to the analysis, the compiled data indicate that Bahrain’s precious metals market maintained a high level of activity despite major global economic challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, sharp fluctuations in gold prices, rising living costs, and changing consumer spending patterns.

Official figures show that hallmarking activity reached its peak in 2018, when approximately 1.53 million pieces, weighing about 11.38 tonnes, were assayed and hallmarked, compared with around 1.27 million pieces weighing 9.7 tonnes in 2017. Activity then declined during 2020 to between 1 million and 1.1 million pieces, with total weights ranging between 7.5 and 8 tonnes, reflecting the impact of pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions.

The market gradually recovered after the pandemic. In 2021, the Assay and Hallmarking Centre processed approximately 1.36 million pieces weighing 9,917 kilograms. Activity reached nearly 1.3 million pieces with a weight of around 9.4 tonnes in 2022, while more than 1.18 million pieces, weighing over 9 tonnes, were processed in 2023. Activity then moderated in 2024 and 2025 amid persistently high global gold prices.

The latest official data show 36,875 service requests for assay and hallmarking in 2025, covering more than 882,000 jewelry and bullion items with a combined weight exceeding 7 tonnes. Gold jewelry alone accounted for approximately 840,000 pieces weighing 6.6 tonnes, representing about 95% of the total number of items and 94% of the total weight processed during the year.

The average weight of a gold item stood at approximately 7.9 grams in 2025, remaining broadly in line with previous years, when the average generally ranged between 7 and 8 grams. This suggests that lightweight and medium-weight jewelry continues to dominate Bahrain’s market, reflecting the segment most closely associated with personal consumption, gifts, and social occasions.

The stability in the average weight of individual items, despite the noticeable decline in the number of pieces entering the hallmarking system, indicates that higher gold prices primarily affected transaction volumes rather than consumer preferences regarding jewelry weight, with demand continuing to favor traditional medium-weight products.

The number of hallmarked pieces declined from approximately 1.53 million in 2018 to just over 882,000 in 2025, representing a decrease of around 42%. During the same period, total weight fell from 11.38 tonnes to slightly more than 7 tonnes, a decline of approximately 38%, indicating that the reduction was more pronounced in the number of items than in their combined weight.

While these figures may suggest consumers are purchasing fewer pieces while maintaining similar average weights, hallmarking data alone cannot conclusively determine changes in consumer behavior because they also include locally manufactured products, imports, bullion, items intended for re-export, and products processed on behalf of manufacturers and importers.

Gold jewelry accounted for the overwhelming majority of hallmarking activity in 2025, confirming gold’s continued dominance in Bahrain’s jewelry market despite the Kingdom’s longstanding reputation in natural pearls, diamonds, and luxury jewelry.

During the same year, the Centre also processed 105,611 pieces of jewelry set with natural pearls, diamonds, and gemstones, underscoring Bahrain’s enduring status as a regional hub for luxury jewelry manufacturing and trade alongside its traditional gold market. However, these products may overlap with the overall gold jewelry category and therefore should not be treated as a separate category in statistical analysis.

Bahrain is more than simply a consumer market for gold. It has developed a comprehensive ecosystem encompassing jewelry manufacturing, imports, assay, hallmarking, redistribution, and a well-established luxury jewelry industry specializing in natural pearls and gemstones, giving the Kingdom a distinctive position among Gulf gold markets.

The scale of hallmarking operations reflects Bahrain’s role as a regional hub for precious metals services, as hallmarking activities extend beyond products destined for the domestic market to include goods processed for manufacturers, importers, and certain products intended for re-export, reinforcing Bahrain’s position within the regional gold and jewelry supply chain.

This corresponds to an annual average of nearly 9 tonnes of precious metals passing through Bahrain’s official hallmarking system, highlighting the sector’s relative resilience despite temporary slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and rising international gold prices.

Hallmarking statistics should not be interpreted as direct indicators of market value or price trends, since the monetary value of the market can increase even when processed volumes decline, driven by higher gold prices. In addition, the value of individual pieces varies significantly depending on purity, design, workmanship, and the gemstones incorporated.

The report concluded that continued annual publication of official hallmarking data would support the development of a dedicated indicator for Bahrain’s gold market, tracking the number of items processed, total weights, average item weight, and gold’s share of total precious metals. Such an indicator would provide a valuable analytical tool for monitoring consumer behavior, manufacturing and import trends, and the performance of the jewelry trade, while also serving as a reliable reference for policymakers, investors, and researchers seeking to compare Bahrain’s gold market with other Gulf markets.