US Lab Grown Demand has Peaked, says Kellie
July 07, 25
(IDEX Online) - Demand for lab growns in the US has probably peaked, says David Kellie, CEO of the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), and will decline in the coming years.
He says retailers aren't achieving the prices they'd like, and consumers are increasingly differentiating between natural and lab grown.
In an interview with Forbes India, he says consumers in China seek authenticity and have shown little appetite for lab growns.
And in India, where the vast majority of the world's diamonds are cut and polished, lab growns have failed to penetrate the retail market because buyers understand the difference between them and natural stones.
As the retail pricing of the lab-grown diamond comes down, the consumer understands that these are two very distinct and different products," said Kellie (pictured).
"Even in the US market, retailers are questioning the viability of lab-grown diamonds because they're not achieving the retail prices that they would do."
Overall, he said the supply of natural diamonds would fall, because of the challenges of recovering them, but prices would rise as demand rises.
Last month African diamond producers and key stakeholders signed up to the Luanda Accord, in Angola, pledging 1 per cent of the value of their rough sales annually to fund NDC campaigns promoting natural diamonds.