Panelists at RapNet event highlight provenance challenges.
One of the ongoing questions in the diamond industry is whether shoppers care about the source of the stones they buy. For Olivia Landau, CEO of online natural-diamond retailer The Clear Cut, the problem is more fundamental.
“Everyone just assumes that natural diamonds come from one place, and it’s Africa, and Africa’s one country, and it is a blood diamond,” Landau said in a RapNet panel discussion at the recent JCK Las Vegas show. “We are starting from square one.”
This means the first stage for jewelers is to educate consumers about where diamonds come from, the benefits they bring to producer countries, and why origin matters, she argued.
“Without that education and that storytelling, consumers have no idea they should be even asking for it,” Landau continued. “If you ask the average US consumer, they don’t even know diamonds come from Canada, they can’t point Botswana out on a map, and they probably have no idea diamonds come from Russia either.”
For the rest of this article: https://rapaport.com/analysis/do-consumers-care-about-diamond-origin/