Moscow: ALROSA proposed to introduce mandatory marking for synthetic diamonds, Vladlen Nogovitsin, Head of the miner’s Customer Policy, told Interfax in his interview. The company’s initiatives to regulate the turnover of “synthetics” are being discussed in the framework of an expert group under the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
“We stand for defining the concept of synthetic diamonds and for mandatory informing consumers about synthetic stones in a jewelry piece. We have nothing against natural and synthetic diamonds put together in a showcase, but it is necessary to specify that a particular product is synthetic,” he said.
Currently, the Russian legislation has no definition of synthetic rough diamonds or synthetic polished diamonds, the ALROSA department head said.
“Theoretically, any dealer can sell anything under the name of diamond, while the buyer will not be able to prove he was misled. On the one hand, this situation is not directly related to the company, but on the other hand, it is detrimental to the reputation of the industry. It is no secret that people being fearful of substandard goods in the Russian market, prefer to buy jewelry abroad, thus making a great contribution to jewelry sales in Europe, China and so on,” Vladlen Nogovitsin said.
Those discussing how to regulate the turnover of “synthetics” are debating even a ban on the use of the name “diamond” for raw materials in these products.
Talking about the “synthetic” market in Russia, he noted that “a significant number of companies having controversial reputation are eyeing the Russian domestic market, asking among other things to ease import procedures for jewelry and loose diamonds.”
ALROSA’s customers in India, which produces about 90% of polished diamonds in the world, are most interested to fight the proliferation of unmarked “synthetics”. “They will be in the front ranks combatting synthetics providing the information that no one else can find for us and suggesting solutions, which no one else can prompt, be it lawyers or diplomats, or politicians,” Vladlen Nogovitsin added.
