GJEPC Mulls Separate Lab-Grown Membership

RAPAPORT...India's Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) isconsidering a new membership category for lab-grown-diamond traders in afurther attempt to keep better tabs on the trade. The organization requires companies to choose a productcategory - known as a "panel" - when becoming a member. While firms dealing inlab-grown diamonds previously selected "synthetic stones," which covers all typesof man-made gemstones, they can now sign up for the category specific to theirbusiness. "Since everything in synthetics was clubbed into one category,we couldn't get an actual estimate of how many lab-grown diamantaires wereGJEPC members," a source at the council said on condition of anonymity. The GJEPC's committee of administration made the decisionearlier this month, the group said Monday in an announcement on its website. Ithas urged potential lab-grown members to register, and will then choose whetherto go ahead with the change permanently, depending on how many companies signup. As of the 2016-17 financial year, the GJEPC had 41 membersthrough the "synthetic stones" panel, compared with 2,345 natural-diamondmembers, according to the council's website. Companies' membership typeinfluences their voting rights, but does not prevent them from trading in otherproducts, the GJEPC source noted. India's exports of polished lab-grown diamonds jumped 89%year on year to $120.9 million in the four months from April to July, accordingto data from the GJEPC. Outbound shipments of natural polished fell 18% to $6.7billion for the same period. Last month, India introduced an import classification codefor lab-grown diamonds, enabling better oversight of the trade and enhanceddifferentiation between the natural and synthetics categories. Image: A lab-grown diamond from the Diamond Foundry. (Diamond Foundry)