As the supply of natural diamonds declines and demand rises, the chief executive officer of the Natural Diamond Council speaks about the impact of lab-grown diamonds, about responsible mining and sustaining livelihoods
David Kellie, CEO, Natural Diamond Council
In its recently released Diamond Facts Report, the Natural Diamond Council said that laboratory-grown diamond (LGD) prices have dropped significantly, with a 1.5-carat stone declining 86 percent since 2015 while natural diamonds have shown, on an average, a 2 percent increase year-on-year in rough diamond prices since 2007. The report also spoke about some common misconceptions surrounding laboratory-grown diamonds. David Kellie, who has over 30 years’ experience in marketing consumer brands around the world, took over as CEO of the National Diamond Council in 2019. The council promotes natural diamonds to consumers on the diamond industry’s behalf and receives funding from De Beers and other mining companies as well as some trade partners. In a conversation with Forbes India, Kellie speaks about the natural diamond market, the impact of lab-grown diamonds in the India market, and why natural diamonds will continue to see growth.
Q. What are your predictions for the natural diamond market in the next five years, considering current trends and challenges?
Five years is a long time, particularly when you look back, we couldn't have predicted the events in the world that have happened over the last five years. But from a diamond industry perspective, the two key components will be that the supply continues to decline. It gets more and more challenging to recover natural diamonds because they are a natural phenomenon. And of course, the rarer they get, the more expensive they are to recover.
And the demand, which has been challenged over the last couple of years, we see recovering as well. So the US market is kind of stable, still doing well at the high-end market. China seems to have hit the bottom of the market, and it looks like early signs of recovery. And the India market is still doing well. So, the net net is that we see supply going down and demand going up.
Q. How do you see the rise of lab-grown diamonds impacting the natural diamond industry, and what strategies can be employed to coexist?