"In 2025, India may become the dominant force in the global lab-grown diamond industry!"
Dear colleagues in the industry, I have been working in the gold jewelry sector for over 20 years, and apart from jade, I have experience with all other categories.
My personal opinion is that if we don’t unite and take action, the initiative in the lab-grown diamond future will be seized by the Indians. The most affected will be the upstream rough diamond production enterprises, and you will become the most unfortunate raw material suppliers.
Here’s why:
The jewelry industry is consumer-centric, and everything must be driven by consumer demand. In other words, the entire industry must start with the end consumer! Any innovation that is disconnected from consumer demand is a waste!
Consumers need confidence. Any product offered to consumers requires authoritative guarantees. This guarantee can come from a brand or a certificate from an authoritative institution. If neither exists, it requires extensive and thorough consumer education.
A healthy industry development relies on good self-restraint throughout the industry and a rational trading and cooperation model that spans the entire supply chain, as well as country-level legal regulations and industry support.
Now, let’s analyze using these four points:
Consumers:
The Indians, with their cutting and polishing advantages and deep connections to the largest consumer market—the U.S. retail sector—are continuously developing new products based on consumer demand. In 2024, India solidified its diamond trade relations with the U.S., establishing partnerships with organizations like the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and Rapaport to ensure the export quotas for domestic diamonds, particularly lab-grown diamonds, while safeguarding interests with U.S. distributors. This stability supports the growth of Surat’s diamond processing industry. At the same time, Surat’s Diamond Center launched several lab-grown diamond jewelry brands, expanding into India’s diverse local market. Currently, some lab-grown diamond jewelry brands have begun entering U.S. and Australian markets.
Consumer Confidence:
The Surat Diamond Center, in partnership with India’s largest conglomerate, Tata, has established an industry fund and invested in IGI diamond testing services, building more in-house testing labs for producers. They are also investing across various stages of the supply chain.
Industry Development:
The Surat Diamond Center has invested in four lab-grown diamond producers to increase CVD production capacity, ensuring they can meet U.S. diamond market demand. More funding is being directed to diamond processors and traders to establish Surat as a centralized diamond industry hub. Currently, the Surat Diamond Center has gathered 470 related industry manufacturers.
Surat Diamond Center’s Development Goals for 2025:
- Continuously invest in CVD diamond production capacity, improving the cutting and processing environment and worker welfare to meet global sustainable industry development trends.
- Increase investment in industry marketing, particularly for the Chinese market, and focus on the growth of China’s lab-grown diamond consumption market.
- Strengthen Surat Diamond Center’s trade system and establish a global online trading platform for lab-grown diamonds.
National Level:
The Modi government’s comprehensive support for the industry and the already mature banking industry support model for this sector.
Contrast with China’s 2024 Lab-Grown Diamond Industry:
Upstream, there’s a reliance on price cuts and factory shutdowns, with a heavy dependence on India’s cutting and polishing skills and product sales channels. If this path dependency isn’t changed by 2025, the upstream industry will fall into irreversible decline. Either you return to your familiar super-hard materials field and stop dabbling in the jewelry market, or you’ll find it impossible to keep up!
Since you are in the upstream sector, if the industry grows, you will be the biggest beneficiaries. But if you continue in your current direction and refuse to lead the improvement of the industry, you will also be the biggest losers.
As professionals in the jewelry industry, we may continue to do business with the Indians, but this time, it’s the business of lab-grown diamonds! What about the future?