MUMBAI: A copycat of diamond may not be forever, but may at least bring some temporary relief to those in the diamond industry bitten by a slump in demand for the expensive stones. The slowdown hit Indian diamond industry is hawking the trendy, but affordable, synthetic colour diamond ranges to the young professionals aspiring to wear diamonds, as it attempts to offset the lull in exports.
“Coloured diamonds are price-competitive and hence, attract the youth because of trendy jewellery designs,” Vasant Mehta, chairman, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) told ET. Globally, this variant has been popular for the past five years, while in India the trend is just catching up.
Demand for diamonds reduced as the affluent citizens cut their conspicuous consumption following massive erosion of wealth because the crash in stock market and real estate markets due to the credit crisis. That led to thousands of job losses in the industry, prompting the companies to look for an alternative to precious diamonds.
Synthetic diamonds, also known as treated diamonds, are produced through a technological process, as opposed to natural diamonds which are obtained due to the geological processes in earth’s crust. Due to the rarity, natural diamonds are expensive. So synthetic diamonds which are available for as low as Rs 5,000, compared with about Rs 8,000 as the starting price for a real diamond, is catching the imagination of Indians.
“The diamonds are as attractive as natural colour diamonds yet are price-competitive. These qualities makes them popular among Indian youth,” says Sohil Kothari, director of Fine Jewellery India, the owner of ‘Nirvana’ brand. Fine jewellery has recently launched colour jewellery collection called ‘Temptation’ made by fusing the natural brown variety of carbon (popularly called Champagne diamond) with synthetic black diamond. The market size of synthetic diamonds is unknown, says Mr Mehta adding that the product is just beginning to make its way into India.
It is not that people are queuing up to buy these copycats. “We have launched a range of yellow diamonds in our ‘Queen’s Collection’, however, there has been a great interest in these, but purchasers are very few,” said, Sahezad Zaveri an international jewellery designer and MD, Meenawala, a jewellery design company.
Source : The Economic Times