Editor’s Note
This article explores the significant shift in the jewelry industry driven by lab-grown diamonds. It highlights how these ethically produced alternatives address critical environmental and humanitarian concerns linked to traditional diamond mining, offering consumers a sustainable choice without compromising on beauty.
The rise of lab-grown diamonds marks an unprecedented transformation for the jewelry industry. Beyond being visually identical to natural diamonds, these scientific gems offer a tangible solution to the serious problems associated with traditional mining: environmental devastation, human rights violations in conflict zones, and an excessive carbon footprint.
Introduced commercially a decade ago, they now command an unthinkable market share from years past. According to data from analyst Paul Zimnisky, they represented 18.5% of global diamond sales in 2023, with projections to exceed 20% in 2024. Although Zimnisky, a prominent diamond analyst, forecasts that jewelers will reduce their lab-grown diamond business and focus more on natural diamonds in the coming year, the trend continues to grow. This growth is accelerated by astonishing technical advances: today, creating these gems requires just 150 minutes.
The commercial milestone is already visible in the US, where they were expected to surpass natural diamonds in units sold in 2024. But this success comes with a paradox: their value per carat plummeted by 90% between 2018 and 2023, according to expert Edahn Golan. This drop reflects both the mass adoption of the technology and the growing preference for ethical and accessible alternatives. The diamond sector is estimated to move about $80 billion annually.
explained Roxana del Valle, director of Ingrata Fortuna, a store in Mexico City.
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The giant De Beers, the world’s largest, representing a third of the polished stone market and which for years led the resistance against lab-grown diamonds—even after launching its own Lightbox line in 2018—made a radical turn in 2024. After a drastic price reduction in May, the company announced in June the definitive cessation of its lab-grown diamond division for jewelry, arguing the economic unsustainability of the model. This move marks the epilogue of an industrial paradox: the same company that tried to capitalize on the boom of synthetic gems ended up confirming, with its withdrawal, the challenges facing the sector. Six years after its forced foray into the market, De Beers seems to reaffirm its bet on natural diamonds, although the market—increasingly dominated by conscious consumers—continues to move in the opposite direction.
The Boston Consulting Group estimates that synthetic diamond production has multiplied by 10 in six years. This explains why the global mining exploration budgets for this industry have fallen to 20% of 2007 levels: $200 million in 2023 compared to approximately $1 billion in 2007. With the advantage that these polished stones do not carry the problem of their origin.
Lab-grown diamonds are created primarily through two techniques: HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition). Each method has its particularities, and choosing between one or the other depends on the type of project, budget, and even the customer’s values.