Gaborone: De Beers has decried the flooding of synthetic diamonds in the industry, which it says was threatening long-term sustainability of the industry.

The group’s head of strategy and corporate affairs Bruce Cleaver was quoted by APA as saying that the “duds” were also threatening profitability.

He said the impact of synthetic diamonds was more severe if manufactures fail to disclose them to the market for differentiation purposes.

“Manufactures are capable of producing diamonds. However, we continue to teach our clients how differentiate between synthetic and real diamond,” said Cleaver.

De Beers controls over 30 percent of the global rough diamonds market estimated at $14 billion. The total market value of synthetic diamonds was estimated at $9 billion, claims APA.