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THE QUEST FOR ‘SUSTAINABILITY’ DRAWS A LINE BETWEEN THE NATURAL AND LAB-GROWN SECTORS

Sustainability is possibly one of the most essential, although intangible qualities that any luxury product must possess today to attract the attention of the contemporary consumer, particularly if he or she is a Millennial of a member of Generation Z. Indeed, in the diamond trade, the right to claim a product as being sustainable often marks the battle lines between the natural and laboratory-grown diamond sectors.

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Bain & AWDC: Diamond Industry Emerges Healthy from COVID

While the COVID-19 crisis represented a massive challenge for the diamond industry, as it did for many other sectors, particularly in the luxury product business, on balance its consequences could have been considerably worse, according to the latest annual Diamond Industry Report, just published by Bain & Company and the Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC).

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De Beers Cuts 2021 Production Forecast by 1M Carats

De Beers has revised its production forecast for 2021 to 32 million carats to 34 million carats, down from 33 million carats to 35 million carats. In a statement released to the media, the company said that this is subject to trading conditions, and is due to ongoing operational challenges and lower expected production from the final cut at its Venetia mine, in the northeast of South Africa.

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Rough Diamond Prices Rebound Amid Market Recovery

After months on a slow burner, the rough diamond market appears to be roaring back. Reporting its results for the final three months of 2020, Alrosa, Russia’s state-controlled rough diamond mining company, has announced a 240 percent quarter-on-quarter increase in sales to 17 million carats, which also was 110 percent more than the figure reported for the same quarter in 2019, before the start of the global pandemic.

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U.S. Registers Blockbuster Holiday Sales Despite Global Pandemic

Despite the economic challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, retail sales during 2020’s November-December holiday season in the United States grew an unexpectedly high 8.3 percent over the same period in 2019 to $789.4 billion, exceeding the National Retail Federation’s holiday forecast, the organization has reported.

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Diamond Jewelry Leads Millennials’ and Gen Z Luxury Preferences

A broad diamond desirability survey conducted by the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) through 360 Market Reach in the final quarter of 2020 showed that diamond jewelry is the most highly desired “tangible” luxury product overall for Millennial and Generation Z consumers, among nine luxury items to choose from, if money were not a concern.

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De Beers Cuts 10% of Sightholders in 2021 Shakeup

With the start of the new year, De Beers has reportedly begun implementing a long-expected shakeup of its sightholder system, with media reports suggesting that there will be a more than 10 percent reduction in the number of companies receiving a direct supply of rough goods from the diamond mining company.

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More Weddings and Engagement Jewelry Predicted for 2021

Although the COVID pandemic is still raging in the United States, the country’s leading matrimonial publication expects the number of wedding that actually take place in 2021 to tick up. According to the The Knot’s 2020 Jewelry & Engagement Study, the November through February proposal season, which evidently is the most popular time of the year for couples to get engaged, is off to a strong start.

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CAR Rebels Capture Town, Raising Concerns in Diamond Markets

The news on January 3, 2021, that rebels loyal to the former Central African Republic president, François Bozizé, had captured the southern mining city of Bangassou were greeted with concern in several diamond trading centers. The landlocked country, which has suffered a string of coups and wars since it received independence from France in 1960, is considered by the Kimberley Process to be the only source of conflict diamonds in the world at present.

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THE COVID FACTOR AND LAST-MINUTE HOLIDAY SHOPPING

With Christmas 2020 in the rearview mirror and end-of-the-year sales in full steam, retailers are beginning to tally up the results of what traditionally is the most important shopping period of any calendar year. Final data is not yet available, but a picture is emerging, and that is one in which the still surging COVID pandemic is very much a factor.

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Key Events in 2020 Beyond the COVID Pandemic

It is far to state that, when history is written, 2020 will be remembered mainly for one specific event, and that is the COVID-19 pandemic. First reported on by Chinese health authorities on January 1, it continued to dominate the narrative all the way through to the end of the year. Even the U.S. election, which most would have pegged as the most important news item moving into 2020, took second place to the coronavirus crisis, and indeed was impacted by it, like all other facets of human existence.

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Kimberley Process Marks 20 Years of Impact in Diamond Industry

With little fanfare, possibly because the COVID epidemic had tended to drown out most other news, 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of a landmark event in the diamond industry – the founding of the Kimberley Process (KP). It was an act that was to change the business, both in terms of its image to the outside world and the way in which its members saw themselves.

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Auction House Ends Strong Year on Optimistic Note

As they have for most of the pandemic-struck year, jewelry auctions continue to pull in impressive results in December. A case in point was Sotheby’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale in New York, which with $46.9 million of goods sold, was the the highest total for a Sotheby’s jewelry auction since 2017.

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Online Sales Dominate U.S. Thanksgiving Weekend

Sales data from the Thanksgiving weekend in the United States indicates that online sales were big winner. Adobe Analytic, which looked transactions from 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers, reported that consumer spending on Thanksgiving itself was up by 21.5 percent year over year, reaching $5.1 billion, a new record. This compared to online sales worth $4.2 billion on Thanksgiving Day in 2019.

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THE PEOPLE’S PRINCESS REMEMBERED AS A JEWELRY ICON

The fourth season of the Netflix series The Crown, the television series focusing on the lives and loves of the British royal family, has finally come around to introducing character of Lady Diana Spencer, thereafter the Princess of Wales, who on screen as she did in reality has grabbed the spotlight from all those around her.

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De Beers Embraces Sustainability as Core Strategy

As part of its Building Forever program, De Beers commits to continue enabling access to world-class healthcare for community members through the hospitals around its mining operations in Botswana and Namibia through 2030 and beyond. (Photo courtesy of De Beers)

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Petra Sells Rare Blue Diamonds, Boosts Cash Flow

A set of five rough blue diamonds has provided some welcome relief to the cash-strapped mining company Petra Diamonds, which closed out a competitive tender in which the winning bid of $40.36 million offered a partnership between De Beers and Diacore was accepted.

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Bain: Luxury Market Sees Sharpest Fall, But Transformation Begins

While the core personal luxury goods market has contracted in 2020 for the first time since 2009, falling by 23 percent at current exchange rates to about $257 billion, it has been a year of profound global change in the way we live, the way we shop and what we value. These are among the findings from the 19th edition of the Bain & Company Luxury Study, released in collaboration with Fondazione Altagamma, the Italian luxury goods manufacturers’ industry foundation.

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