Year of the Tiger: gold jewellers and retailers eye year of roaring business ahead

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Gold items linked to the tiger are the second-most popular gold products among the 12 zodiac animals, next only to the dragon, says president of the local gold exchange

Lukfook Group has prepared more tiger gold products, as it believes the outlook for Hong Kong’s economy has improved after the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines

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A staff member shows a gold bar featuring a tiger at a gold store in Suzhou, in China’s Jiangsu province. Photo: Getty Images

Enoch Yiu

Published: 7:30am, 31 Jan 2022

The Year of the Tiger is expected to be a very good year for gold jewellery retailers, as the big cat is the second-most popular animal in the Chinese zodiac, industry players said.

Second only to the dragon in the 12-animal Chinese zodiac, the tiger is expected to bring in high growth in sales of gold products made for this particular year. A wide range of gold tiger products – minted coins, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, as well as gold bars and other artefacts – have been available in Hong Kong’s jewellery shops since early January, replacing the ox as the Year of the Ox draws to a close.

“The tiger is the second-most popular gold product among the 12 zodiac animals, next only to the dragon. As such, the sales of tiger gold coins and other products are expected to be higher than the previous year,” said Haywood Cheung Tak-hay, president of the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society, the local gold exchange traded by most local jewellery makers.

Chinese people will buy gold jewellery, coins, bars and other artefacts related to the zodiac animal ahead of or during Lunar New Year, the most important festival for the Chinese community. The Year of the Tiger, which will begin on Tuesday, is the third in the 12-animal Chinese zodiac. The 12 animals, which follow in the order of the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, represent a cycle of 12 years according to the Chinese lunar calendar.

Lukfook Group, one of Hong Kong’s largest gold jewellery retailers, which has 2,790 sales points in Hong Kong, mainland China and overseas, has introduced a wide range of gold tiger jewellery and artefacts this year, starting from about HK$1,000 each (US$128).

Hong Kong jewellery retailer Lukfook Group has produced a wide range of gold jewellery and artefacts for the Year of the Tiger. Photo: Handout

“We have prepared more tiger gold products this year, as we believe the pandemic has become relatively more stable after the government’s introduction of vaccines,” said Nancy Wong, Lukfook’s executive director and deputy CEO. “The sales of gold tiger jewellery are likely to be better than in the past two years, of the ox and the rat.”

Buyers liked to purchase gold products associated with the zodiac animal of the year as birthday or wedding gifts, or for themselves, as they believed the zodiac animal will bring luck and fortune, Wong said. So the tiger is a natural choice for the coming 12 months.