Editor’s Note
This article explores how lab-grown diamonds are reshaping the global jewelry market, offering consumers near-identical brilliance at a fraction of the cost and challenging traditional industry hubs.
When placing a synthetic diamond and a natural one in front of a person, the brilliance might make it impossible to identify which is the original jewel, the one extracted naturally and over a billion years old. Synthetic diamonds are created in a laboratory, are new, and cost less than half.
However, synthetic gems are transforming the global diamond market, valued at $89 billion, especially in the city of Surat, India, where 90 percent of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished.
In Smit Patel’s laboratory, diamond crystal “seeds” are placed in reactors that mimic the extreme pressure under the earth.
asserts Patel, director of Greenlab Diamonds and the third generation of his family in the diamond business. From seed to gem, his team takes less than eight weeks to produce a diamond indistinguishable from one mined.
Patel maintained. The export value of synthetic diamonds from India tripled between 2019 and 2022, while exported volumes rose by 25 percent between April and October 2023, according to industry data.
Patel told AFP.
Laboratory reactors like Patel’s are loaded with carbon gases, such as methane, and the crystal grows under heat and pressure. The rough diamonds are taken to another facility where hundreds of workers design, cut, and polish the stones.
The market share of synthetic gems by value grew from 3.5 percent in 2018 to 18.5 percent in 2023, industry analyst Paul Zimnisky told AFP. He added that this year it could reach 20 percent. This has increased pressure on an industry already hit by geopolitical instability and declining demand.
Synthetic diamonds were developed in the 1950s but required technological advances to become commercially viable, which has been possible for less than a decade. Producers defend that their gems generate less carbon, although doubts persist that the energy-intensive production process is better for the environment.
Patel claims his laboratory uses solar energy from the local grid, although others get their electricity from coal-fired generators. Mined diamond sellers assure that “conflict diamonds” are off the market through the Kimberley Process certification, but synthetic producers emphasize that their facilities guarantee a clean history.
The so-called conflict diamonds come from conflict zones where militias try to use them to finance their activities. These environmental and humanitarian guarantees have helped synthetic stones become popular in engagement rings.
Indian diamond manufacturers exported 4.04 million carats between April and October 2023, a year-on-year increase of 42 percent, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).
In contrast, Indian natural diamond companies reported a drop of more than 25 percent, to 11.3 million carats, in the same period. The sale of natural diamonds grew during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, but demand declined afterward. Consequently, major companies were left with excessive inventories.
However, the laboratory industry also has its problems. Supply skyrocketed and prices fell drastically. Wholesale prices declined by 58 percent in 2023. Traders in Surat told AFP that the price of a polished one-carat stone fell from $2,400 in 2022 to just over $1,000 in 2023.
WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the second-largest US producer of lab-grown diamonds, filed for bankruptcy in October. But Patel maintains that the price decline will boost demand.
he explained.