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MARKETING DIAMONDS

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FIVE TRUTHS ABOUT NATURAL DIAMONDS, AND FIVE ABOUT SYNTHETICS

TRUTH NUMBER 1: Diamonds are older than life on Earth, a true miracle of nature

Long before there was life on Earth, the DPA points out, there were diamonds, with most being created one to three billion years ago, and the youngest diamond ever found being more than 100 million years old.

TRUTH NUMBER 2: Diamonds are rare and getting rarer everyday

The number of recovered diamonds peaked in 2005 and will decrease significantly over the next decade. In fact, most of the diamonds recovered today come from kimberlites discovered decades ago. Indeed, notes the DPA, the annual production of all diamonds of 1 carat and up in size is equivalent to the volume of two basketballs. It is that of a soccer ball for diamonds of 2 carat and up in size, and that of a tennis ball for diamonds of 5 carats and up in size.

TRUTH NUMBER 3: Demand for diamonds has never been stronger

Last year, 2017, was the strongest year ever for diamond jewelry in terms of sales, and that growth is likely to continue. Millennials, who represent 59 percent of the value of diamond jewelry demand, while making up only a quarter of the world population, have been shown by research to display a strong interest in products that offer authenticity, rarity and preciousness. A real, natural diamond meets that demand, the DPA says.

TRUTH NUMBER 5: The diamond industry makes an important contribution to the world

Some 10 million people globally are dependent upon the revenues generated by the diamond industry, the DPA points out, including 1.5 million artisanal and small-scale miners and their families in Africa and South America, who collectively provide 15  percent of the world’s rough output.

The annual production of rough diamonds, as seem in terms of basketballs, a football and a tennis ball.

TRUTH NUMBER 4: ‘Conflict diamonds’ belong to the past

Diamond used to financing civil uprisings, better known as “conflict diamonds” are  largely  a  thing  of  the past, the DPA says. Altogether 99.8 percent of diamonds complaint with the Kimberley Process, which is the certification scheme set up by a coalition of governments in 2003 to prevent the infiltration of such goods into the market.

At the same time, the DPA released a second paper, this time pointing out what it calls “Five Essential Laboratory-Grown Diamond Truths. These are:

TRUTH NUMBER 1: Laboratory-grown diamonds have essentially the same physical and chemical characteristics as natural diamonds, but they are not identical, and they are easily detected.

TRUTH NUMBER 2: Laboratory-grown diamonds are produced in a matter of weeks, primarily in factories located mainly in Asia.

TRUTH NUMBER 3: The retail price of lab-grown goods continues to erode as the costs of production decline.

TRUTH NUMBER 4: The carbon emissions for a one-carat synthetic diamond are similar to, and sometimes greater than, those for an equivalent natural diamond.

TRUTH NUMBER 5: A large majority of consumers do not consider laboratory-grown diamonds produced in a factory to be real diamonds because they are not formed naturally in the Earth. This claim is based on a Harris poll conducted in May 2018 that showed that 68 percent of U.S. consumers believe that a laboratory-grown diamond produced in a factory is not a “real diamond,” while only 16percent believe they are.

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