CIBJO Congress: More Recommendations re: Coral, Diamonds, Opals, Fei Cui (Jade), and more…

CIBJO Congress: More Recommendations re: Coral, Diamonds, Opals, Fei Cui (Jade), and more…

Reports from the 2024 CIBJO Congress, held in Shanghai from November 2 through 4

CORAL
“Consumers need to be informed about any treatments to precious coral, in order to protect confidence,” said Kenneth Scarratt, Vice-President of the Coral Commission, and President of Sector A.

“Treatments may impact a coral’s value, and are often not permanent or may require special care. The seller shall, therefore, inform the purchaser about the treatment and any special care requirements.”

Kenneth Scarratt, CIBJO’s Sector A President, who also serves as Vice President of the Coral Commission, addressing the CIBJO Congress.

DIAMONDS
Raluca Anghel, Global Head of External Affairs and Industry Relations at the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), spoke of the importance of the correct use of diamond terminology and disclosure across the jewellery trade. “We don’t have a lot of consumers who see the differences between natural diamonds and laboratory-grown diamonds,” she said. “Consumers need to understand these differences.” The significant price differences that have opened up between natural diamonds and laboratory-grown diamonds reinforce the need for correct disclosure to protect consumers, Ms Anghel said.

Blue Book
The CIBJO Diamond Blue Blook is a vital tool in determining the correct use of the terms for synthetic diamonds, laboratory-grown diamonds and laboratory-created diamonds, she added. “The Natural Diamond Council focuses a lot on driving marketing efforts and supporting brands and designers in bringing content to consumers. But where we see consumers affected by incorrect disclosure, we act,” Ms Anghel said.

Inappropriate Marketing
The NDC has sought to protect consumers by reporting to the relevant authorities any inappropriate use of diamond terminology in retail around the world.

In the United Kingdom, for example, Skydiamond advertisements were banned because misleading claims about the nature of their synthetic gems, following a ruling by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority after a complaint was lodged by the NDC. Skydiamond had used terms such as “real diamond” to describe laboratory-grown diamonds.

In another example, in India, the NDC filed a complaint to the Advertising Council of India about an Indian company’s advertisement of laboratory-grown diamonds which incorrectly used a term “green diamonds.”

Breaches of Disclosure
Terms such as “created diamonds”, “sustainably created” or “sustainably grown” and “world positive”, are examples of breaches of disclosure, Ms Anghel said. She also warned against using such terms in hashtags in social media marketing.

A further example of a breach of disclosure was an advertisement by a retailer (Agape Diamonds), which had promoted free earrings without disclosing what type of stones they were using, Ms Anghel said.

The NDC has released a report called “Diamond Facts” to inform retailers about natural diamonds and to explain the differentiation between natural diamonds and laboratory-grown diamonds.

Natural Marketing
The NDC presented a marketing video to the CIBJO plenary featuring their ambassador, actress Lily James, which showcased how the livelihoods of a community of workers and local residents at a diamond mine in Canada, were benefiting from diamond mining.

Purvi Shah, head of Ethical and Sustainable Value Chains at De Beers, who also is coordinating CIBJO’s Supply Chain Nomenclature Committee, provided an overview of the projected to create harmonised and commonly understand terminology for describing supply chain in the diamond industry and the greater jewellery industry.

Diamonds made from Grandma and Grandpa
In a separate presentation, Ronnie Bauer, senior Australian representative to CIBJO, questioned retail offers of synthetic diamonds “made from cremated remains”, and asked the Diamond Commission to investigate further and deliver guidance.

Questions have reportedly been raised in scientific circles about the validity of offers to create laboratory-grown diamonds from the cremated remains of loved relatives and pets. This because temperatures in crematoria typically exceed those precipitating the vaporization of carbon, raising the question whether sufficient carbon could be retrieved in order to synthesize a diamond.

The Diamond Commission considered for discussion the following draft statement: “A laboratory-grown diamond report must clearly and prominently indicate that ‘the stone is grown from an unknown carbon source.’”

OPALS
Australian coloured gemstone, mining and jewellery groups reported that are working to develop a Opal Guide and are inviting traders in key localities around the world to make submissions to develop the document, the CIBJO Congress heard.

“I would like to invite people in opal centres such as Mexico, Honduras, Ethiopia and Brazil, to contribute to this important work,” Australia-based opal supplier Ruth Benjamin-Thomas, President of the Australian Opal Association, told the CIBJO Congress plenary, adding that much of the input so far had come from Australia.

“The Opal Guide has been championed by CIBJO for quite a long time. We don’t currently have a way of classifying and describing opal clearly, within the worldwide community, and so this Opal Guide is really going to be the start of that process, in describing and classifying opal from all localities around the world.

“It is a really important document that we have been working on in Australia to begin with, working with the Jewellers Association of Australia, the Gemmological Association of Australia, and my own opal association.

“We have been consulting with the local mining groups as well as the valuers.

“We brought our document to CIBJO, to the last Congress, in Jaipur in 2023, and we produced a classification and a glossary of terms that can be used for all opal worldwide. This was adopted and the working group was formed.”

Ms. Benjamin-Thomas said later in an interview that she is now seeking submissions from traders in other localities in opal producing countries such as the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, and Indonesia. She said she was looking forward to continuing her work on this “living document”, designed to be updated from time to time, and hoped to present it, if possible at the next CIBJO Congress in 2025. She said she would welcome people to message her via her LinkedIn account.

FEI CUI
The Fei Cui Working Group, which is operating under the CIBJO umbrella with the active support of China’s National Gems & Gemstone Testing Company (NGTC) and the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong (GAHK), outlined progress and challenges in developing an international standard to promote trade and business in jade and jadeite to the participants in the 2024 CIBJO Congress.

Live Broadcast – A Very Large Audience
The session was broadcast live worldwide, via the CIBJO YouTube channel, as well as in China via the Xinhau Finance, Tiktok, Huya and Yizhibo platforms.  It was viewed by a total of 535,00 people.

Fei Cui, which is often popularly referred to as jadeite, but has a much more complex definition relating to minerals in the jade family, is a vitally important jewellery material with an annual worldwide turnover second only to diamonds, and most notably in the vast Chinese market. 

The speakers in the session included leaders in the field, such as Kent Wong, Managing Director of the world’s largest jewellery retailer Chow Tai Fook, who also is Chairman, Hong Kong Jewellers’ & Goldsmiths’ Association, and Dr. Edward Liu, Chairman of the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong (GAHK). In 2019 they made the initial approach to CIBJO to develop and international standard, when they presented the concept to the CIBJO Congress in Bahrain that year.

Other speakers included Horace Leung, Hong Kong Science & Technology Park Corporation; Ms. Su Jun, director of the Technology and Standardization Department of China’s National Gems & Gemstone Testing Company (NGTC); and Yang Lang, a celebrated Chinese broadcaster and journalist. She concluded the event with a presentation on the use of Fei Cui in jewellery by celebrities, both Chinese and Western, over the years.

Mr. Wong and Dr. Liu traced the history of the development of Fei Cui standard. CIBJO is currently working on a Fei Cui Guide, which it hopes to have ready by the end of 2025.

Use in the West
In other recent developments, the GIA said in March 2024 that they would refer to Fei Cui in their Jade Report. The commonly used trade term “Fei Cui” will be listed in the comments section of the GIA jade report when appropriate, with the explanatory note stating that “Fei Cui” refers to jadeite, omphacite, and kosmochlor.

Mr Leung said that the booming development of the Fei Cui business and the jewellery industry in the past few decades, had triggered the need for the establishment of jewellery standards. “When regional trade expands into international trade, these standards will inevitably move toward internationalization,” he stated.

“Gem labs will apply the standards, and provide test reports together with good services to the customers.”

Under ISO standards, service and testing processes must be clear and understandable, and the technology and test equipment used must be very stable and reliable. “Trust of test reports and services of gem labs in the market and business stem from the transparency and trustworthiness of the processes,” Mr. Leung said.

Mr. Leung said that it was important to conduct audits by international accreditation bodies to ensure the stability of the quality management system, and help gem laboratories testing Fei Cui to improve and correct operational defects.

As accredited gem labs are subjected to audit and monitoring, their results will be assured and accepted for the internationalisation of the developing Fei Cui standard, he added.

Tap here to find out more of what was discussed at the 2024 CIBJO Congress in Shanghai!