Lab-grown diamonds are losing
their appeal due to oversupply and consumer preferences are
starting to shift back to natural stones, World Diamond Council
President Feriel Zerouki has said.
The natural diamond industry has seen a price slump since
mid-2022 after peaking earlier that year, mainly due to the
rising popularity of lab-grown gems especially among younger
jewellery buyers.
But a collapse in lab-grown diamond prices on the back of
increased production in China and India, has started to
undermine confidence in the synthetic gems, Zerouki told Reuters
in an interview at a mining conference in Luanda on Wednesday.
“If you look at the latest trends, lab-grown diamond prices
are crashing. This is impacting consumer confidence in
lab-growns,” Zerouki said.
Diamond industry analyst Edahn Golan says the average
wholesale price of one-carat and two-carat lab-grown diamonds
has fallen by as much as 96% since 2018.
Experts have warned that the price of lab-grown diamonds
could drop so low that they become fashion accessories that no
longer compete with diamonds, especially in the key bridal
market.
“I believe that the lab-grown bubble has burst. And
actually, there is a movement in the trade, even at retail
level, to come back to natural diamonds,” she added.
Zerouki, who is also Vice President of Trading and
Industry at global diamond giant De Beers, said a rebound in
demand for natural stones would not happen by itself, but
requires initiatives such as the Luanda Accord.
That is an agreement by diamond-producing countries and
firms to create a collective marketing fund for natural
diamonds.
Under the agreement, countries such as Angola, Botswana, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and South Africa have
committed to allocate 1% of their annual diamond sales revenue
to a campaign to promote natural diamonds.
(Reporting by Miguel Gomes, editing by Nelson Banya and Ed
Osmond)