What truly saddened me…
Recently Leibish Polnauer, President-Leibish & Co expressed out his view on the back of his contribution in the diamond industry for over 40 years, specializing in fancy color diamonds and rare gemstones. He inks, I recently had an interesting conversation with a diamond manufacturer in India who I have known for many years. His factory currently has around 100 employees and he is known to cut a nice stone-many of which I have bought in the past.
I was confused this time when he contacted me and showed interest in buying goods from us. I asked myself, how could that be? What is the reasoning for this change in situations? At first, I did not understand, but then he explained; in his current position it is not possible to manufacture diamonds and break even financially. Rough diamonds are expensive, and it’s no secret that in the current market, diamond sales are sluggish.
He continued to elaborate, explaining that he has been polishing chemical vapour decomposition diamonds (CVD diamonds) in order to keep his business afloat and to keep his current employees occupied. He will have to continue doing so until the current diamond situation improves, his vision is to be polishing diamonds again in the near future but until then he must do what it takes to keep his factory running.
I am truly saddened to see what people have to do just to survive. I ask myself, is that desperation or a new tendency which will take bigger and bigger place? The Indian manufacturer doesn’t want to close his factory and lose his trained employees – so in turn he has opted to polish synthetic CVD diamonds.
At the same time internet sales in jewelry and in general rose but polished prices slumped with the RAPI showing 1 carat diamonds declining 17.7% -from January 1, 2010 to December 25, 2019. Diamond prices and sales were lackluster this year, but I see strong signs of real recovery. As the supply has declined by 50% and the market share of CVD diamonds are barely 2% of the total diamond sales worldwide.
The Diamond brand is suffering from our own branding failures. Give women back the feeling that our love to them is eternal and unbreakable, that diamonds are of permanent value, everlasting shine and stronger than any force in the world. I believe that true love is a beautiful and rare thing, and there is nothing more beautiful than a natural diamond that has been evolving for thousands of years.
