2026: It's All About Marketing
December 24, 25
It's all about marketing, says Ronnie VanderLinden.
"My key issue, and it has long been my key issue, is marketing. Period," he says. "I think we've lost out because of the way we've marketed our product, our wares. Education and marketing is what will bring the industry back." 
VanderLinden is vice president of the World Diamond Council, the New York-based trade association that represents the entire pipeline from miners to retailers.
He shared his insights with IDEX Online on the challenges facing the diamond industry as he prepares to take over from Feriel Zerouki as president in May.
He believes the industry adapted well to the impacts of COVID-19 but has since faltered.
In June, the announcement of the Luanda Accord - a global campaign to market natural diamonds - generated much excitement.
African producers pledged to contribute one per cent of their rough sales to promote their products and counter the rise of lab-grown diamonds. But six months later, there is still no campaign.
VanderLinden expresses concern that many countries committed funds when their budgets were already set, making it difficult to contribute at this time.
"My feeling is a lot of these countries dove in at a time where the natural diamond industry is suffering terribly," he says.
"They all threw their hats in the ring with substantial amounts of money in the middle of the year, when their budgets were all set.  
"They don't have the one per cent to give at the moment, that's the way I look at it. My hope is that in 2026, the Luanda Accord will come into effect."
He also notes, with dismay, that there's been little in the way of jewelry ads on TV in the US ahead of the holiday season.
As for lab growns, he says there's no stopping them. His own manufacturing company, Diamex, deals in both natural and lab growns.
"As long as retailers can make a nice little margin, they're going to sell what they can sell," he says.
Aside from marketing there are two other issues at the top of his list of priorities for his upcoming presidency - conflict diamonds and US tariffs.
A broader definition of conflict diamonds, which would have included "state actors" and other groups, was rejected by Australia, Canada, the EU (representing 27 member countries), Switzerland, Ukraine and the UK at last month's plenary in Dubai.
"I can't express enough to you how close we were to having a new definition," says VanderLinden.
"What I will say is that it comes down to a couple of words, that's it. For the most part, countries are aligned. My hope for 2026 is that we will keep moving towards a new definition."
Tariffs - and the damage they're doing to the US diamond industry - is an area where VanderLinden has, personally, been very active.
"My prediction is that by the end of 2026 we'll have the majority of the tariff issues settled," he says, by which he means diamonds being added to Annex 3, the US list of low-tariff or tariff-exempt imports.
"There's a lot of work to be done by industry, and we need to have these discussions with our colleagues in Washington. We need to be able to show them how tariffs for an article that cannot be mined here in the United States can disrupt an entire industry.
"I listen to the administration, our current president, say how wealthy the country is now, and his favorite word, tariffs, is making us wealthy.
"Well, from my point of view, maybe it's making the country wealthy, but it's making it on the companies that are paying the tariffs - businesses. This is where the country is making its money."
Tariffs are hurting wholesalers and manufacturers, he says, and a resolution hinges on a US trade agreement with India.
And his parting thoughts on the coming year? "We know that debt is skyrocketing out there on credit card debt, defaults on mortgages, on car payments, and so on and so forth.
"If we don't gather our wares and if we don't work together, and if we're splintered, we're not going to see a positive end to 2026
"But my prediction is that if we can hold our own as an industry, and we work together globally as an industry, the natural side of the industry will come out smelling like a rose by the end of 2026."
Have a fabulous 2026.