Lab grown diamond business suddenly in trouble – thousands of jobs at stake

All over the world, lab grown diamonds instead of real ones are prevalent in laboratories. However, due to sudden decrease in the export of lab grown diamonds, lakhs of diamond artisans of India may be in trouble. Why did the shine of the lab grown diamond fade?

Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD) are diamonds that are not mined but are grown in a lab. These look just like real diamonds. Exports suddenly fell- The chemical composition of both is also the same. Samay Mahendru, co-founder of Estrella, a company that sells lab grown diamonds, explains. After natural diamonds, India has also made its place in synthetic diamonds i.e. lab grown diamonds. That is why synthetic diamond export was 42.8 lakh carats in the year 2022 and increased to 64.5 lakh carats in 2023. Now this year there has been a 45% decline in exports so far because De Beers, the company that polishes lab grown diamonds globally, has announced that it will no longer uses lab grown diamonds. In such a situation, there is now an option to bring South Korean technology to India. Only then will the situation improve.

Lalabhai Heerpara, member of Sardar Patel Diamond Association, says that South Korea makes lab grown diamonds in 15 minutes, in India it takes 7 days. The government should sign a technology agreement with Korea. India’s annual production of synthetic diamonds is 16 million carats. In Gujarat alone, 5 lakh artisans are dependent on lab grown diamonds. In 2021, the market of lab grown diamonds in the world is $21 billion and that of real diamonds is $95 billion. By 2031, the world market for lab grown diamonds is expected to grow to $43 billion and that of real diamonds to $139 billion.

Presently the condition of synthetic diamonds is bad but lab grown diamonds are much cheaper than real diamonds, hence jewelers hope that their market will remain forever. Lab Grown Diamond Jewelers Jai Kumar Begani says that real diamond is quite expensive but the demand is high, hence the market for lab grown diamond will remain. South Korea is currently competing with India and China due to technology. Now India will also have to innovate in this field.