Unhappy with Pandora, one of the world’s leading fashion jewellery retailers, publishing a public statement with a narrative positioning laboratory-grown diamonds (LGDs) as an ethical choice versus natural diamonds, the leadership of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), the World Diamond Council (WDC), CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) are up in arms.
Calling it a false and misleading narrative, the organizations on May 7 said that ‘while reportedly mined diamonds went into only about 50,000 Pandora pieces last year -- out of a total of roughly 85 million items -- the company's move seems to reflect the greater demand for sustainability in the consumer markets. From a marketing point of view, Pandora’s strategic decision to adopt the much cheaper LGDs may be a sound decision by itself as diamonds made up such a small segment in their products catalogue. However, the way and wording the company chose to motivate and announce its decision was outright reprehensible and irresponsible. This, therefore, is no small matter, and we hope that Pandora will recant and apologize,’ the natural diamond industry organizations opined.
They claimed that the natural diamond industry employs tens of millions of people around the world who depend on the income and welfare that the natural diamond industry provides, especially now more than ever given the hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The misleading narrative created by the Pandora announcement implying the natural diamond industry is both less ethical and the impetus behind Pandora’s move to lab-grown diamonds, particularly given the inconsequential amount of diamonds Pandora features in its collections, can have unintended but substantial consequences on communities in developing nations. The industry organizations have called upon Pandora to support communities by correcting the record,” the industry organizations said.
«The group acknowledges Pandora’s decision to sell laboratory-grown diamonds as a positive expansion of the jewellery industry but warns that potentially false and misleading assertions can diminish consumer confidence across all categories and create confusion which is detrimental to the industry as a whole.”
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
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