Nikolai Pokhilenko, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
“Sergei Vybornov’s assertions about the forthcoming decrease of mining output are correct; our experts provide similar estimates. His idea to curtail the diamond pipeline from the mining pit to the jewellery store counter removing excessive intermediaries from the market is of current concern. In this context, direct supplies of rough to companies possessing world-renowned jewellery brands like Tiffany may partially solve the problem. However, we would like to see a Russian brand in the market comparable to Tiffany - this is a very complicated task, but taking into account, that it is right here where the added value is being created, it would be worth to tackle it.”
Alex Popov, General Director of the Moscow Diamond Exchange:
How do you estimate the agreement between ALROSA and Tiffany?
If the agreement will be signed and it will include rough, it will be a marked success of ALROSA in changing the sales policy. I express my cordial congratulations to Mr. Vybornov and his team upon this success, which will undoubtedly be followed by others. Tiffany is a very serious and a very thorny client. I have a great experience in supplies for Tiffany and I sincerely wish good luck to ALROSA. If they will be able to cope with supply specifications of this company, they will be able to cope with others, like Richmond Group or LVMH.
One of the articles at diamondintelligence.com suggests that illegal traffic of rough from the Russian Federation reached $500 million…
The article points to a lot worth $500 million allegedly smuggled from Russia to Switzerland. It is not clear who estimated this lot to be worth such an incredible amount of money. There are hundreds of offers dealing with rough and polished diamonds and other gems floating around the world and proceeding from fishy persons unfortunately quite often of Russian origin, who provide “evaluations” from banks and insurance companies for incredible amounts. Usually this is done to defraud simpletons of their money. Do you think the Swiss customs service could follow their suite? However, speaking seriously, most likely this is quite true that someone smuggled commodities from Russia or Africa and managed to obtain Swiss Kimberley certificates, but for a smaller amount. We should not resist “wild guesses”, but we should resist those procedures, which made it possible for such a stupid thing to occur and in the first place the limitations, which hinder honest diamantaires to operate in a normal way due to endless export and import barriers. If everything could be done in a normal way, nobody would engage in smuggling. Besides, it would not be bad if the Swiss would check the procedure of issuing Kimberley certificates in their country.
Nikolai Zhuravlev, Press-Secretary of Kristall, Smolensk:
What is the outlook of African diamond cutting in your opinion?
The diamond-cutting industry in Africa is in the process of being established and no one can tell to what extent it will be profitable and successful; it remains to be seen.
What do you think about a possible decrease in the world diamond output?
Our analysts have also spotted such a trend.
Eli Avidar, Managing Director of the Israel Diamond Institute:
As usually, Mr. Vybornov’s speech was of great interest. His presentation was very important since he shared the Russian experience in diamond cutting business. I believe that Mr. Vybornov’s opinion was new and different from the other opinions expressed during this Conference.
Udi Sheintal, Managing Director of the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association:
Mr. Vybornov’s speech was warmly acclaimed by the participants of the Conference since he was sincere. He did not try to win popularity; he just said that ALROSA was now experiencing certain difficulties due to decreased diamond output and due to the necessity to switch over to underground mining. His presentation was very candid in economic terms. It seems to me that he knows what he is doing.
Kennedy Hamutenya, Diamond Comissioner, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Goverment of Namibia
What expression do you bring from Antwerp conference?
I think the foreigner companies are interesting in Southern Africa.
A lot of businessmen from Israel, Belgium and India are coming here. This affects the business .This affects the diamond pipeline. For years Namibia has only been exporting rough diamonds. We want more than that. This is the manifestation of that aspiration and our vision of downstream processing. Obviously we have been told that we should not do it “because it is not for us and that we do not have competitive advantage. We do not have the skills, we do not have the technology.” But This things you can buy. You can buy skills, you can buy the technology. You can work on productivity. You can transfer skills. That what is exactly happening at Namgem , Namcot and other factories. So for us this is a challenge. We may succeed, so at least we are going to give it a try. People who are coming here are business minded people. If they did not see the potential in Namibia they would not come.
