Find Chinese jade jewelry wholesale vendors

China was the historic center of jade jewelry production and Chinese jade jewelry makers still dominate the trade.

I recommend: Finding Chinese jade jewelry wholesalers is easy: Try China B2B directory sites like Alibaba.com or Global Sources.  Evaluating companies to partner with – that’s the difficulty.  The U.S Commercial Service can help you check out the background of a Chinese jade supplier.  Even better, meet and assess Chinese jade jewelry makers in person at a China jewelry market trade show, like one of those run by CMP Asia.  For a sense of the variety of China jade jewelry makers, see Hong Kong jade specialist Sheentiff or Alamode Inc., a large-scale jewelry producer with offices in California and a factory in Dongguan.

Find North American jade jewelry distributors

If you prefer to work with jade jewelry importers or manufacturers close to home, you can find a variety of providers online or by hitting the gem trade shows.

I recommend: Jadeite.ca is the online outlet of an Ottawa jade wholesaler that claims to import mostly A-grade, certified jadeite jewelry.  The Jade Mine makes green jade jewelry with stones from its own nephrite mine in British Columbia. Jade by Nikolai in Honolulu (no website – call 808-732-0609) designs and manufactures exquisite jade jewelry for sale in high-end stores.  For more jade jewelry distributors and manufacturers, check these leading shows: GemFair, JA New York Shows, MJSA Expo New York and JCK Las Vegas.

Protect against inferior jade jewelry for sale

While finding reputable jade jewelry distributors is still the best protection, you can ask your jade jewelry partners to provide certificates of grading and authorization from well-known gem-testing labs or send jade gemstones to the labs yourself.

I recommend: Labs that test jade include the Hong Kong Jade Association, the Hong Kong Gems Laboratory, the American Gem Trade Association and the Gemological Institute of America.