World Diamond Congress – The Industry’s League of Nations?

Next week, Dubai will hold the 37^th World Diamond Congress, where the three main themes are transparency, responsibility and sustainability. I think we can all heartily agree that these issues from critical components of our industry and need to not only be discussed at length, but action plans put in place for the foreseeable future and beyond.

It’s heartening to see that from some perspectives, the industry has shifted a little to a slightly more compassionate position than that which was shown prior to, and during last year’s Presidents’ Meeting. Less obvious too is the “we’ll look after our part of the pipeline, you take care of yours” attitude that was raised at that meeting. Whether it was forced upon them my market realities or whether producers developed a keener sense of industry altruism, the truth is that rough prices did at last begin to fall.

Some profitability seems to be creeping back into the diamond industry with many commentators speaking about a return of stability, rising prices and greater manufacturing output. But the recovery also seems somewhat precarious – despite strong rough sales from major miners and significant purchases by mid-stream pipeline players since the start of the year – potentially pointing to long-awaited recovery.

The World Diamond Congress is a rare opportunity for representatives of producers, diamond-mining countries, and a range of service providers, such as banks and laboratories to meet in the same place at the same time. All the ingredients will be present for the industry to set about the tackling the issues that afflict it – in particular financing the industry.

The presentations by ABN Amro Bank's head of diamond and jewelry clients Erik Jens, and De Beers’ head of commercial development Howard Davies, as well as the panel discussion that follows, will be important in explaining how the industry can tackle liquidity and financing issues. As World Federation of Diamond Bourses president Ernie Blom said, "For too long, industry members and the banks have not been on the same wavelength.” So, we have to hope that this will not only be an opportunity for issues and problems to be aired and for greater understanding, but also for actionable next steps.

Solutions to problems have been long-mooted and efforts have clearly been made to address them. Be it the natural vs. lab-grown debate that seems to have cropped up again with a vengeance judging by the number of recent articles on the topic or how to deal with reduced sales of large expensive diamonds, particularly in the US, and in the two key groups of Baby Boomers and Millennials. Certainly the presence of the Diamond Producers Association and the World Diamond Mark Foundation will be critical in explaining how that particular conundrum can be tackled.

Even in the short time that I have worked in the industry it seems that there have been a number of crossroads, with decisions to be made and opportunities not to be passed up. The upcoming Congress can be added to that list, and we must have faith that a workable agenda for the diamond industry will be set for years to come.