International Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee to be set up

In a collaborative effort, diamond and jewellery companies and trade bodies of the sector met to discuss possibilities of setting up an International Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee (INDMC), reports say. The purpose of this would be to protect the integrity of the natural diamond pipeline from rough to jewellery, reports say.

Representatives of the DPA, WFDB, GJEPC, AWDC, DDE, DFHK, SDE, GZDE, BDB, GJF attended the meeting and agreed to set up the INDMC on the sidelines of the ongoing India International Jewellery Show 2017 (IIJS). The meting was convened by GJEPC and its own NMDC. The initiative also received support of trade bodies from Israel, US, Japan and Africa.

After the formal setting up of the INDMC, a meeting will take place in Hong Kong in September.

According to Praveenshankar Pandya, Chairman, GJEPC, the INDMC would furtjer the efforts taken up by the many trade associations untill now, including those by manufacturers and wholesalers to ensure the natural diamond industry clearly sets its own individual footprint. The INDMC will support this and help strengthen consumer confidence in natural diamonds by focusing especially on the forward part of the value chain particularly in the major jewellery manufacturing centres and consuming markets, reports add. Mr. Pandya added that the initiatives by its own NDMC in India since three years of it being set up would work as a basic model that could be developed across centres.

He highlighted that, “In India, we have ensured that there is effective screening among loose diamond manufacturers and traders and have also begun working with jewellery associations in over 20 major cities across the country. Our aim is to have an extensive network of screening centres and ensure that detection devices are easily accessible. It should be possible for any jeweller or even consumer to have their diamonds and jewellery tested without any difficulty if they so wish.”

The INDMC will be outlined with the work of establishing a common governance system, including elements such as standardized nomenclature, global acceptance of distinct HS Codes for trade in synthetic diamonds, providing information on screening devices and systems among others. Mr. Pandya noted that, the synthetic diamond industry will have to work as establishing its separate position in the market, as has the natural diamond industry with decades of effort. Clarifying that the natural diamond industry was not opposed to synthetics per se, but was against any attempt to malign natural diamonds, Pandya that new segment must not “attempt to ride on the investment and hard work put in by the natural diamond industry,” reports add.