Dubai: Rosaries can cost as little as 200 dirhams, while others quickly enter the tens or even hundreds of thousands. One tour of the Dubai Rosary Exhibition 2026 is enough to show how what some regard as a hobby or heritage item has developed into an international market of traders, craftsmen, suppliers and collectors, with some rare pieces commanding prices comparable to jewellery and antiques.
In its first edition in Dubai, the exhibition brought together traders, craftsmen and enthusiasts from 21 countries across 86 stands at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Dubai International Financial Centre from November 6 to 8. On display were collections of rosaries, natural amber and rare pieces, alongside the world's largest in-person rosary auction.
But the scale of the market becomes even clearer away from the display cases, in conversations with the traders themselves.
Murjana, a Chinese trader visiting Dubai for the fourth time, arrived at the exhibition with about 100 kilograms of goods. To her surprise, almost half had already been sold through pre-orders before she arrived.
She says she sold about 50 per cent of her stock, with demand exceeding her expectations to such an extent that she is already considering returning for the next edition with a larger space.
For her, Dubai is no longer simply a stop on the exhibition circuit. It is a market where she can connect with buyers from different regions.
The same picture emerges from Abu Sulaiman, a Bahraini trader who believes the turnout at the first edition reflects a growing market, not only among traders but also among Emirati enthusiasts.
He says he had previously participated in specialised exhibitions in Qatar and Poland, but was surprised by the level of organisation and the number of visitors in Dubai. In his view, the first edition rivalled more established exhibitions in the sector.
Abu Sulaiman points out that the rosary market now spans a wide range of price points, beginning with what traders describe as "economical" pieces and rising to more distinctive and rare rosaries.
He said: "I have a piece in the exhibition that reached a price of 150,000 dirhams, and there are other pieces for around 100,000 dirhams."
Demand is not limited to the days of the exhibition. He explains that traders who have successfully built their own names and brands can receive advance orders from enthusiasts and collectors before the rosaries are even made, particularly because selecting, cutting, sorting and working the raw material can take time.
For him, the presence of buyers willing to pre-order pieces or pay more than 100,000 dirhams for a single rosary indicates that the UAE's community of enthusiasts is growing.
"The Emirati hobbyists are expanding, and I believe that this hobby will develop more and more," he says.
The interest was not limited to buyers and enthusiasts. Abu Muhammad, a Saudi trader, said the exhibition also generated sales between traders.
"We have started selling to traders more," he says, allowing them in turn to resell pieces to other enthusiasts and collectors.
He summarises the exhibition as having "connected the trader with the hobbyist, the hobbyist with the trader, and the trader with the trader".
That activity suggests the rosary trade is not driven solely by direct sales to consumers. It also includes a resale market and the exchange of pieces between traders and collectors.
Prices reveal another side of the business. According to Abu Muhammad, some of the rosaries he offers start at about 200 dirhams, with prices rising according to the material, age, carving and rarity, reaching hundreds of thousands of dirhams in some cases.
Kuwaiti craftsman Alaa Farid, who has worked in rosary manufacturing and shaping for about 15 years, says a piece of amber passes through six or seven stages before becoming a finished rosary. The process starts with cutting the raw stone, then shaping it into smaller pieces before turning the material into beads, followed by turning and polishing.
But craftsmanship alone does not explain the high prices. In the amber market, much of a piece's value can lie in the stone itself.
Farid is displaying a piece priced at more than 150,000 dirhams despite weighing just over 35 grams. He explains that its colours and patterns are entirely natural and that finding a similar piece is extremely difficult.
He says some rare materials may appear only once among about 1,000 stones, while the prices of other pieces can reach 250,000 to 300,000 dirhams.
At the upper end of the market, the exhibition featured a piece of Faturan more than 120 years old and valued at over $1 million, alongside a piece of German amber dating to 1880 that was also valued at about $1 million.
From the Baltic Sea to Dubai
Behind a rosary displayed in Dubai is a longer commercial and craft journey than might first appear.
Ismail Al Kamali, an Emirati trader who has specialised in amber for about five years, personally selects the stones he works with. He said the raw materials come from Russia's Kaliningrad region and the Baltic Sea region before being cut, shaped and turned into rosaries.
He describes buying raw stones as a process involving a degree of risk because the true quality of a stone is not always apparent from the outside. Cutting can reveal problems or defects hidden within.
Over time, he says, expertise in selecting raw materials has become an essential part of his work.
From this hobby, Al Kamali has built his own brand, with products reaching Gulf and Arab markets. His sales during the exhibition were higher than he expected, even though he participated primarily to display his work and introduce his products.
Adam Abu Noah, a trader from Sweden who has a store in the UAE, says this was his first exhibition in the country, despite his experience working in the sector and participating in international markets.
Visitor numbers exceeded his expectations, he says, describing the experience as successful enough for him to consider participating every year.
Abu Noah also imports raw amber from Baltic Sea countries, which he either sells or shapes locally. His business represents another link in a commercial chain that combines imports, manufacturing, craftsmanship and retail.
When authenticity becomes part of the price
With prices reaching such levels, determining whether amber is natural, treated or synthetic becomes an essential part of the buying process.
The Dubai Central Laboratory therefore participated with a platform for testing amber, gemstones and precious metals, providing free, immediate services to visitors.
Khaled Al Balushi from Dubai Municipality said visitors purchasing a rosary at the exhibition can take it directly for inspection to determine whether it is made from natural, treated or pressed amber, or another material.
The service provides buyers with greater confidence, particularly when transactions can reach tens or hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
This is where the broader picture presented by the exhibition's first edition becomes clear.
The event did more than bring together rare collections and enthusiasts searching for new pieces. It assembled an entire commercial chain in one place: raw materials arriving from the Baltic Sea, craftsmen turning them into rosaries, traders from different markets, a laboratory testing authenticity, and collectors willing to pay substantial sums for pieces that are difficult to replicate.
The organisers of the Dubai Rosary Exhibition included developing the sector and promoting trade and investment opportunities among the event's objectives, alongside efforts to strengthen Dubai's position as a global destination for the amber trade.
Between a trader who arrived in Dubai with 100 kilograms of goods and sold half of them, an Emirati trader who built a brand reaching markets across the region, and pieces whose prices start in the hundreds of dirhams and rise into the millions, the exhibition suggests that behind the small rosary lies a market far larger than it might first appear.