Dubai diamond laboratory to revolutionize certification process

Speaking on the first day of the 5th annual Dubai City of Gold Conference (DCGC), which opened Sunday at Dubai's Park Hyatt hotel, Peter Meeus, Executive Director (Diamonds & Coloured Stones), Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), vowed that the newly-formed International Diamond Laboratories (IDL) would revolutionize the diamond certification process. IDL's rallying cry, he said, will be "From Art to Science."

"It's clear that Dubai has a character like no other," Meeus said. "It's Unique Selling Proposition is simple: How do you create out of nothing?" He added that IDL, launched in Dubai last month, will take this approach to diamond certification. "We will do business as if reinventing," he said. "We will rethink things from scratch."

Meeus pointed out that international diamond certification has been turbulent in recent years, partly as a result of the proliferation of synthetic diamonds and partly because of general concerns about certification standards and procedures. Around 80 percent of diamonds on the market, worth $3 billion a year in the Middle East alone, are sold without certification.

"Uncertainty has no place in the diamond market," Meeus said. "We will offer consistency through technology. The market needs a reputable international player." One of the areas that IDL will be looking into, he added, is branded diamonds, "a kind of hallmark to guarantee quality."

With 20 leading industry speakers addressing 300 delegates from 25 countries, this year's two-day conference is the largest yet.

Other speakers on the opening day included Kenneth Gassman, President of the Jewellery Industry Research Institute, who explored the influence of age in jewellery buying patterns. Young people, he revealed, make up an ever-larger portion of jewellery consumers. In the US, the 25-34 age group spends $683 million on jewellery a year, he said, adding, "High end is where the action is."

Jacques Voorhees, Chairman of Polygon, stressed the growing importance of e-commerce in the jewellery market, pointing out that overall sales rose 7 percent in the US last year, while online sales were up 20 percent. Even big-ticket items are being purchased on the Internet, Voorhees said, adding that a diamond worth $250,000 was bought online in March of this year.

Paul Walker, Chief Executive Office (Gold) of GFMS looked at the effect of the jewellery industry on gold prices. Jewellery, he said, is the "cornerstone of the gold market." Later, Walker took part in a spirited panel discussion titled "Where will gold price go in 2007?" All five panellists agreed that the price of gold will likely rise this year, though they differed on the amount of the increase.

"I would not be surprised to see gold rise above $800 this year," said Paul Van Eeden, President of Cranberry Capital. No one on the panel expected the price to fall below its current price of a little under $700 per ounce, although they agreed that the market will remain volatile and warned that unforeseen circumstances, such as geopolitical instability, could affect forecasts.