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On Tuesday, May the 4th, the jewellery giant Pandora announced that they will stop extracting natural diamonds from mines for its jewellery. In the future, Pandora wants to produce all its jewellery synthetically in a laboratory. A decision that has provoked numerous reactions from the jewellery industry.
Pandora‘s decision to stop mining natural diamonds and switch to laboratory production was made with the aim of reducing environmental costs and opposing the exploitation of labour in diamond mines. However, the leading jewellery organisations are denouncing the misrepresentation of their announcement and are calling for a public statement retracting their story.
Indeed, industry leaders acknowledge Pandora’s decision to sell lab-grown diamonds as a positive expansion of the jewellery sector, but denounce the way in which it was justified. Pandora’s explanations could have several repercussions for Pandora itself but also for the industry. They could diminish consumer confidence but also create confusion that would be detrimental to the industry as a whole.
The speech, which jewellery experts say is misleading, suggests that the natural diamond industry is less ethical, which would be the reason for Pandora’s switch to laboratory-produced diamonds. This could have unintended but significant consequences for communities in developing countries. With these communities needing the industry’s support more than ever, given the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, industry leaders have called on Pandora to support communities by correcting the facts straight through a public statement.
Leading jewellery organisations such as the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), the World Diamond Council (WDC), the World Jewellery Confederation and the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) are working to support the integrity of the natural diamond industry, providing transparency and ethical insight to consumers and committing to respecting human rights, labour rights and minimising the environmental impact of the mining practices that produce natural diamonds. They are therefore naturally asking for a rectification of the statement from Pandora. To be continued.
Read also > WATCHES AND JEWELLERY: THE FRENCH INDUSTRY WEAKENED DESPITE A RESILIENT DEMAND
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