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GJEPC Mulls Separate Lab-Grown Membership
Aug 29, 2019 8:52 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT...
India’s Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is
considering a new membership category for lab-grown-diamond traders in a
further attempt to keep better tabs on the trade.
The organization requires companies to choose a product
category — known as a “panel” — when becoming a member. While firms dealing in
lab-grown diamonds previously selected “synthetic stones,” which covers all types
of man-made gemstones, they can now sign up for the category specific to their
business.
“Since everything in synthetics was clubbed into one category,
we couldn’t get an actual estimate of how many lab-grown diamantaires were
GJEPC members,” a source at the council said on condition of anonymity.
The GJEPC’s committee of administration made the decision
earlier this month, the group said Monday in an announcement on its website. It
has urged potential lab-grown members to register, and will then choose whether
to go ahead with the change permanently, depending on how many companies sign
up.
As of the 2016-17 financial year, the GJEPC had 41 members
through the “synthetic stones” panel, compared with 2,345 natural-diamond
members, according to the council’s website. Companies’ membership type
influences their voting rights, but does not prevent them from trading in other
products, the GJEPC source noted.
India’s exports of polished lab-grown diamonds jumped 89%
year on year to $120.9 million in the four months from April to July, according
to data from the GJEPC. Outbound shipments of natural polished fell 18% to $6.7
billion for the same period.
Last month, India introduced an import classification code
for lab-grown diamonds, enabling better oversight of the trade and enhanced
differentiation between the natural and synthetics categories.
Image: A lab-grown diamond from the Diamond Foundry. (Diamond Foundry)
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Tags:
Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, GJEPC, India, lab-grown diamonds, Rapaport News, synthetic stones, Synthetics
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