The 2023 CIBJO Congress has opened in Jaipur, India, with calls for greater collaboration across the sector to protect members of the industry and boost prosperity.

CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri pledged to protect all members of the global jewellery industry from challenges created by war in Ukraine and the expectation that new restrictions to global trade will be introduced.

“CIBJO is not a political body. Our obligation is to protect the interest of all our members and our members’ members, regardless of size, where they are located geographically, and in what parts of the chain of distribution they operate in,” Dr. Cavalieri said.

He was referring to challenges to the global industry triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

G7 developed countries, which collectively account for more than half of all jewellery sales each year, recently announced their intention to introduce stricter measures that will prevent the import of all diamonds and jewellery set with diamonds, which were originally mined in Russia.

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, speaking by video link, urged greater collaboration across the global jewellery trade to boost prosperity.

He referred to the huge importance of India’s gem and jewellery sector to income and employment in the world’s fifth largest economy.

The Indian government has set a target for India to be the world’s number one gemstone and jewellery sector. Leading jewellers say that India has the potential to be the world’s largest jewellery market in the coming years.  

Vipul Shah, Chairman of India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), a key sponsor of the congress, called for greater marketing efforts and collaboration to boost demand for jewellery around the world, against increased competition from alternative luxury categories.

“We all should try to grow the jewellery pie and gain market share from the other categories,” he said.

Keynote speakers addressing the inauguration of the CIBJO Congress, also spoke of new competitive challenges in the global diamond jewellery industry, against a backdrop of falling natural diamond prices and rising demand for lab-grown diamond jewellery, while prices of lab grown diamonds have dropped sharply.

Yoram Dvash, President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), called for efforts to raise demand for natural diamond jewellery, adding that in his view lab-grown diamonds do not provide lasting value.  

He applauded a new $20 million generic advertising campaign by De Beers to stimulate demand for natural diamond jewellery.

Feriel Zerouki, President of the World Diamond Council (WDC), called on the global industry to seize opportunities from the present challenges.

“Let’s work now to seize these opportunities when we have them,” she said.

Damien Cody, President of the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), spoke of tight supplies of natural coloured gemstones, and regional supply bottlenecks due to the war in Ukraine.

He spoke of a constructive outlook for coloured gemstone demand, notably driven by China now emerging from the lockdowns.

He added, “At the top end of the market we are seeing very strong demand and high prices at auctions and tenders.”