Editor’s Note
This personal reflection highlights a significant shift in consumer consciousness. Where once the primary concerns around a diamond purchase were cost and sentiment, today’s buyers increasingly question its ethical and environmental provenance. This evolution mirrors a broader trend of mindful consumption, where the story behind a product is as important as the product itself.
It has been over 20 years since I bought my diamond wedding ring. Back then, I was only concerned with my finances and my wife’s reaction. But now, much like wine or seafood, diamonds are also being questioned about their “origin.”
At the G7 Summit held in Hiroshima from May 19-21, 2023, restricting the export of Russian diamonds, a source of funding for the invasion of Ukraine, was one of the agenda items. The leaders agreed to cooperate in excluding Russian diamonds from the market and aim to establish traceability technology to track their complex distribution routes. What is this cutting-edge technology that protects a diamond’s “bloodline”?
At the end of April, I visited the historic city of Antwerp in northern Belgium. In this city, about 80% of the world’s rough diamonds are traded, driving an annual business worth about 5 trillion yen. Of course, Russian diamonds are not unrelated. Before the invasion of Ukraine began, they accounted for a substantial 25% of all transactions.
I stepped into the offices of the venture company “HB Antwerp,” located in a building about a five-minute walk from the station street lined with jewelry stores. Passing through a metal detector under strict security and going up to the 8th floor, I found a brand-new office with an atmosphere reminiscent of an IT company. Employees were peering intently into microscopes and inputting data into computers. In their line of sight were rough diamonds.
Gem-quality diamonds reach consumers through multiple processes: mining, trading, cutting/polishing, and retail. According to industry insiders, cutting and polishing are centered in countries with low labor costs like India and China, and trading is also shifting to emerging economies like Dubai in the Middle East. Currently, most Russian diamonds are polished in India, but due to the unique structure of the diamond distribution system, many are exported to places like the United States as “Indian-origin” diamonds.
According to AFP, the global trade value of Russian diamonds is estimated at $4-5 billion annually (approximately 550-690 billion yen), serving as a crucial source of funding for the invasion of Ukraine. Industry insiders argue that as long as this system remains unchanged, no matter how much the G7 or the European Union (EU) tightens the ban on Russian diamonds, Russia’s coffers won’t be hurt.
HB’s technology has the potential to fundamentally overturn this current situation. The company, which opened in 2020…