Masisi rallies for natural diamonds in Las Vegas
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday June 4, 2024 13:37
The annual JCK Show is one of the diamond world’s biggest calendar events and this year attracted about 30,000 delegates from across the value chain of the industry. Botswana for the first time established a booth at the show, while Masisi took the lead in championing the argument for natural diamonds both for the country and for the industry.
“You must never underestimate attempts to scratch you and do you harm,” he said in a fireside chat on Friday. “But let’s pause a moment and ask yourself what is a lab-grown. What is it? What does it mean for those buying them? What’s the end game? “The more you churn these things out, the more they become such a useless ubiquity that no self-respecting young lady or old lady would want it. It comes close to becoming an object of violence to your feelings.”
The explosion in the production and purchase of lab-grown diamonds in recent years was part of the reason natural diamonds expressed a downturn last year. Uncertainty in the global economy, including escalating inflation in key markets and rising interest rates in the United States, depressed consumer demand and helped the cheaper lab-growns secure more space in jewellers’ shelves. The United States accounts for 54% of diamond sales annually.
Statistics show that by 2022, at least one-third of diamond bridal rings sold in the United States will contain a lab-grown stone, undercutting the most profitable market for natural diamond producers.
Masisi said the industry needs to get back to its basics.
“The most rational thing to do is get back to basics, what your mother and grandmother taught you. “Respect, be faithful, love ceaselessly, and you will be married forever. “That’s what we want to get people reconnected to. “Diamonds are based on trust and if you can trust that which is on your finger or nose, belly button, you know that you can leave it for the next generation as an inheritance. “You know they are secured in their future because of that. “You can’t say the same about the other thing,” he said.
Masisi’s remarks came as De Beers used the JCK event to showcase a new diamond verification instrument that boasts a 100% success rate in distinguishing between natural diamonds and synthetics. De Beers said results from the device are delivered within seconds and it has been priced to be affordable for retailers, “recognising the important role it is expected to play in supporting reputation and sales activities”.
Lab-grown diamond producers often market their synthetics as real diamonds in order to push sales.
“We want you not only to optimise the use of technology but more than even the technology, we want you to reinforce your commitment to ensuring that you first find out where whatever claims to be a diamond comes from before you buy it because anything not coming from Mother Earth or nature should never be considered a diamond. “It’s the uniqueness, the rarity that makes it what it is. I want to assure you that Botswana is going to be an ethical long-term player in this game,” Masisi said earlier in the week at the De Beers’ booth opening.
The President pledged that Botswana would continue to lead the natural diamond industry in upholding the highest ethical standards and provenance, in order to enhance the value of the stones.
“Our intention is to grow the value of diamonds and to make them as valuable as they have ever been and that demands a lot of responsibility,” he said. “So you kick the bad players and the first bad players we want to kick out of the scene are those who pretend. “They make for a contamination of the industry because they are not diamonds. “Secondly, we want to associate with ethical do-gooders and being associated with those enhances and comes close to the level and value of our provenance in our diamonds because the whole value of our diamonds is derived from the provenance. “I can’t think of any who come second to us, particularly measured against the length of time that we have been at this.”