WFDB President Ernie Blom has said that the forthcoming WFDB-IDMA Presidents’ Meeting that will be held in Dubai on September 24-25, will discuss details of a broad campaign that bourses will take up to highlight the rarity of natural diamonds and the fact that, due to this, they have “historically maintained resale value”.

Blom said that the meeting will take an in-depth look at the issue of synthetic diamonds with a panel discussion dedicated to the issue featuring industry experts.

He stated that the main distinguishing factor between natural diamonds and lab-created stones, “apart from the whole love element”, is that “natural diamonds are a non-renewable source".

Pointing out that the supply of natural diamonds is limited by nature, and due to this inherent rarity of higher-quality natural diamonds they have historically maintained resale value after purchase, he said, “Synthetic diamonds will not hold value. Natural diamonds do."

The WFDB President feels that the best way to express the rarity argument is related to the issue of the resale price. "As production of lab-grown diamonds is abundant, the price can never be sustained. This means that buying a lab-grown diamond will never give you back the same amount when you later try to resell it or when your children try to do the same," he states.

In the coming months, diamond bourses around the world will bring about initiatives to share this message on a broad scale, he added.