Diamond-producing countries on the African continent received about $8.1-billion in 2018, or 9.5% of the $85.9-billion worth of revenues generated from the sale of diamond jewellery, and some still may consider that an insufficient share, World Diamond Council (WDC) president Stephane Fischler told delegates attending the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Russia, earlier this week.
He stressed that the economic potential of the diamond resource, whose value increased by about a factor of five as it travelled from the mine to the countertop of the retail jeweller, was indisputable.
Advertisement“Diamond deposits hold the promise of a better future for all African producing countries, and more specifically for the communities living in the areas where they are located.
“To realise this promise, those mining the product need to receive fair value for their labour and capital investment, and an appropriate proportion of the revenues generated must be used to create sustainable economic and social opportunities at the grass-roots level,” Fischler said.
AdvertisementHowever, he added that, for the long-term developmental potential of the product to be realised, the diamond must continue to be an aspirational purchase for consumers.
“Because they can live without diamonds, they will only buy them if they want to,” Fischler said, noting that there were ten-million Africans whose income depended on continuing demand for diamond jewellery in consuming countries.
“Reputation, therefore, is a key element, and defending that reputation is of paramount importance. If the integrity of the diamond is undermined, so is the economic potential of the product.”
Looking ahead to the 2019 Kimberley Process plenary meeting, which will be held in New Delhi, India, from November 18 to 22, Fischler stressed the importance of progress being made in strengthening the scope of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, as part the three-year review and reform cycle that will be ending in several weeks’ time.
“More specifically, we are talking about amending the definition of conflict diamonds so that it better enables us to provide an assurance that the trade in rough diamonds cannot fund the types of systemic violence being seen in certain diamond-mining areas today,” he said.
The WDC was rolling out its new System of Warranties (SoW), which Fischler noted “has a scope that goes significantly beyond that of the Kimberley Process”.
The new SoW statement, which members of industry are required to include on all invoices and memo documents, includes a commitment by the companies that they adhere to the WDC Guidelines.
These now expressly reference international conventions relating to human and labour rights, anticorruption and antimoney laundering, he pointed out.
Moreover, a special task force is developing a toolkit that will assist industry members comply with the new protocol.