The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) has voted to establish a lab-grown diamond committee that will determine rules for the synthetics sector.
The CIBJO board approved the move at the confederation’s 2019 congress in Bahrain, which took place from November 18 to 20. The committee will include members of an existing working group that comprises CIBJO officers, as well as representatives from the lab-grown and natural diamond industries and a gem lab. They will report to CIBJO’s Diamond Commission.
“The time has come to reach a modus operandi that is acceptable to all of us,” CIBJO president Gaetano Cavalieri said Thursday. “Unnecessary effort and time have been wasted through mutual recrimination, and ultimately it is in the interests of all sides to develop a mutually agreed-to framework that would prevent problematic incidents, such as the mixing of parcels of natural and laboratory-grown diamonds without disclosing the fact to consumers.”
The organization also set up a committee that aims to develop an understanding of the new technologies impacting the industry.
Additionally, the CIBJO board reelected Cavalieri for another two-year term and voted in two new vice presidents to join current vice president Roland Naftule. They are Jonathan Kendall of De Beers, and Pramod Agrawal, chairman of India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
