Following the establishment last year of the CIBJO Trade Show Commission, participants at its meeting this year discussed how trade shows can help the work of the jewellery industry and how it can help lay out a strategic approach on the subject.

Trade Show Commission President, Corrado Facco, spoke of the need for CIBJO to get United Nations’ recognition of the Branded Trust initiative developed by Professor Donald Feaver of RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, an expert in Corporate Social Responsibility.

Mr Facco is also the managing director of Fiera di Vicenza in Italy.

In Mr. Facco’s opinion, trade shows should provide a critical infrastructural platform for the delivery of systems that companies can implement themselves, thereby incorporating standard and certifiable CSR methods of operation in their own businesses.

The commission’s aim in general, Facco said, is to provide a common platform, develop options by which the trade can be developed, while upholding the ethics of CIBJO, which include CSR, disclosure and fair trade.

“We would like to see 1,000 companies involved in the CSR programme,” he said. “It is a voluntary initiative, but it needs to be easy to understand and effective. The added value that it can bring must also be apparent from the outset.”

Mr. Facco would like CIBJO to feature at educational seminars at shows on CSR, ethics and other issues. In addition, show organisers could be endorsed by CIBJO, as might show exhibitors, as long as they showed that they were in compliance with CIBJO’s codes of conduct.

Photo Caption: Corrado Facco, President of the CIBJO Trade Show Commission

The issue of so-called carbon footprints and how companies can reduce the amount of pollution into the atmosphere was the main subject on the agenda of the Marketing and Education Committee.

A British company called Carbon Expert gave a presentation on operating in a carbon-neutral manner, telling delegates: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Committee members heard about ways to reduce carbon emissions and the benefits to business of doing so. The firm said it could aid companies in the jewellery pipeline to put a plan in place and manage it for them.

Some of the world’s largest consumer goods firms, with scores of brands, have already taken steps to reduce carbon emissions, as have leading luxury goods firms, including Gucci, Tiffany & Co and Louis Vuitton. Many of these companies are seeing greater revenues because they are advertising their environmentally friendly ways of operating, and  this has struck a chord with consumers who are willing to pay a higher cost for goods that have been created in a way that causes less damage to the environment than was formally the case.

Globally-known department store Marks & Spencer saw a 50 percent rise in revenue in 2012 due in part to its carbon-neutral activities that were popular with shoppers, the Carbon Expert team reported.

Having carried out carbon-neutral activities, it is critical that businesses report them to their customers in order to reap the full benefit, they said.

On the sustainability theme, Dr. Laurent Cartier from the Swiss lab SSEF, spoke about sustainable pearl and coral farming in a project that had been sponsored by Tiffany & Co. He said that caring for the environment where pearl farming took place often produced healthier marine life, and healthier oysters, meaning better-quality natural pearls were created.

He said that the arguments in favour of sustainable development produced a favourable response among the younger generation – a target market for jewellery firms.

Professor Donald Feaver from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, pointed out that CSR is also about environmental protection. He cautioned industry members against using claims that they could not back up, saying that there were many knowledgeable groups worldwide keeping an eye on such claims and embarrassing firms which made exaggerated claims.

Photo Caption: Moya McKeown of Carbon Expert during deliberations of the CIBJO Marketing and Education Commission in Moscow.

Advertising rules, regulations and guidelines were comprehensively explained at the Ethics Commission meeting by Suzan Flamm, Senior Counsel at the U.S. Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC).

Ms. Flamm delivered a presentation covering the topics: what is advertising, basic principles of ethical advertising, truthfulness, substantiation, fairness, and advertising online.

She started out by explaining that advertising truthfully worldwide was a sure way of boosting consumer confidence. Avoid threats of prosecution by government agencies or competitors’ lawsuits caused by bad advertising methods, she said, adding that the principles that she outlined were accepted for the most part around the world.

“Claims must be truthful and non-deceptive, and this also applies to characteristics of the materials used in jewellery items,” Ms. Flamm said. “Advertising is evaluated on the overall impression it creates. An advert is deceptive if it omits information likely to mislead the consumer. Advertising must contain clear, understandable language. There must be disclosures if stones used in the jewellery have undergone treatment.”

“Companies must be able to substantiate their claims. The only exception is where they include opinion-type comments, such as ‘Our diamonds are brighter than the stars,’” she continued.

Ms. Flamm explained that all ethical considerations in traditional media applied also to Internet advertising. “Disclosures should be clear, conspicuous and prominent and on the same screen. The reader should not have to click to a different screen to get information regarding information about the item being advertised.”

The same sort of rules also apply to social media advertising. A false review is fake advertising as it leads the reader to believe that the review has been produced by a neutral, third-party reviewer. Similarly, paying someone to write a review of a product is also false advertising, she stated.

Photo Caption: Suzan Flamm, Senior Counsel at the U.S. Jewelers Vigilance Committee.

Meeting at the CIBJO Congress in Moscow, the Diamond Commission decided to advance a proposal that, henceforth, the CIBJO definition of a diamond would also have the following addition: “a diamond is a mineral which has been formed completely without human interference. It may be subsequently cut and polished.”

CIBJO’s position is that diamonds, which are sold without any qualifier, can be assumed to have been formed in nature.

The session of the Diamond Commission, which followed a comprehensive seminar on synthetic diamonds, which had been organised by Diamond Commission President Udi Sheintal.

Synthetic diamonds, therefore, need to be disclosed as such. Article 3.7 of CIBJO’s Diamond Book states: “The fact that a synthetic diamond is wholly or partially synthetic shall be disclosed. Only the term ‘synthetic,’ ‘laboratory-created’ or ‘laboratory-grown’ shall be used to describe synthetic diamonds and these terms shall be equally as conspicuous and immediately precede the word ‘diamond.’”

Meanwhile, the Commission also considered the issue that changes were needed in the Blue Book regarding coloured diamonds, since they are becoming increasingly popular for investment purposes and their descriptions should now be stated in the diamond book.

Deputy Commission President Harry Levy explained that terms regarding colour hues of coloured diamonds were not universally accepted and understood. “Consequently, there is no price list or guide for buyers as to how much they should be paying. We have heard complaints that the profit margin is as much as a factor of 10. Bringing order to the issue would help create a price list.”

The Commission also considered the issue of custom tariffs where officials are using the same tariff for natural and synthetic stones since there is no separate tariff for synthetics. “This could theoretically lead to a situation where someone might say that natural stones and synthetics are the same because the customs charge is the same for both,” Levy explained.

Meanwhile, Commission President Udi Sheintal told delegates that Steering Committee members decided to change the title of the Blue Book to The Diamond Book, and the proposal was accepted by members.

Sheintal said that the terms Treated diamonds and Treated would be left in the book.

In addition, the Commission accepted a proposal by Ronnie Bauer from Australia that the diamond blue book should include a term called Laser Inscription regarding the laser inscription of diamonds. Bauer’s proposed definition was accepted as follows: “The process of using a laser to inscribe letters, symbols, logos and numbers on the girdle or facets on a diamond.”

Photo Caption: Udi Sheintal, President of the CIBJO Diamond Commission.

A range of speakers provided delegates with a deep understanding of the issue of lab-grown or synthetic diamonds. The event was coordinated by the CIBJO Diamond Commission, and moderated by Ronnie Vanderlinden, President of the Diamond Manufacturers and Importers of America (DMIA). He opened the event by saying that there was nothing against trading in synthetics as long as they were openly disclosed.

Although the issue has received great media attention in the past couple of years due to the mixing of synthetic stones into parcels of melee, Mr. Vanderlinden reminded the audience that it was not a new topic and had been around for about 50 years.

“There is no need to fear lab-grown diamonds,” he said. “They will be part of our lives in the future as diamond mines become depleted. He said that litigation would not be successful in the area of synthetics and called for greater communication between the synthetic diamond sector and its naturally mined stones counterpart.

Vanderlinden introduced Russian scientist Dr. Andrey Katrusha, an expert in the field of lab-grown diamonds who spoke about the different production methods – HPHT and CVD. He said the costs of both methods were similar as were the profit levels from both. He commented that the process was already very efficient and within several years was likely to become at least 10 times as efficient.

Dr. Katrusha pointed out that most of the lab-created production was aimed at industrial usage. Furthermore, he said that annual production could reach 2 million carats per year with factories being set up in China.

The next speaker was Dr. Simon Lawson, of De Beers Technologies UK, who told delegates that the diamond miner has been involved detection technology research for 30 years and that the aim of creating detection machines was to maintain consumer confidence.

Dr. Lawson  said that, technically speaking, it was still difficult to create a perfect colourless diamond since there are often metallic inclusions.

He said the key features of lab-grown diamonds were fluorescence and striations, with a “terrace” effect on the surface of the stones.

He said the machines that De Beers had produced for synthetic detection were DiamondSure, DiamondView and DiamondPlus, and that his division works closely with Element 6 in order to produce the most effective detection devices.

De Beers has also produced the Automated Melee Screening (AMS) machine for small diamonds of 0.10 to 0.20 carats. The firm is making them available to Diamond Trading Company Sightholders this year and to the Forevermark lab in Antwerp.

Dr. Lawson said the pass rates for detection using the AMS machine were 98 percent for 10 point stones, 97 percent for five-pointers, and 96 percent for one-pointers.

The next speaker was CIBJO Pearl Commission President Ken Scarratt who is GIA Managing Director for South East Asia. He said the GIA developed and produced its DiamondCheck machine because it found that previously too many diamonds were being referred for further checking. Among the advantages of the machine were that there are fewer “false referrals” and the device can also detect non-diamonds.

Speaking on the development of lab-created diamonds, Scarratt said the past decade had seen a big improvement in the ability of manufacturers to create higher colours and clarities as well as in producing a large range of coloured stones.

Presenting the legal aspect regarding lab-grown diamonds was Suzan Flamm, Senior Counsel at the U.S. Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC). She pointed out that the words diamond and synthetic are clearly defined terms under the U.S. Federal Trade Commission jewellery guides. She explained that synthetic stones must be qualified with words such as “lab-grown” or “lab-created” or “(manufacturer’s name) created diamond”.

Failure to disclose the lab-created nature of a stone can be regarded as a breach of contract and warranty. It is also a deceptive trade practice.

Not knowing that a stone is synthetic is no defence under U.S. law and under the country’s Lanham Act, compensation can be awarded. Because a criminal violation requires proof of intent to defraud a client, prosecutors are more likely to seek a civil remedy such as breach of contract. Ms. Flamm advised diamantaires to be responsible for goods they sell and to be completely aware of its nature.

Jean-Pierre Chalain, director of the diamond department at the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF) presented the Automated Diamond Spectral Inspection (ASDI), which is a device which can analyse very large quantities of melee diamonds at low cost. It is able to identify colourless synthetic diamonds, as well as diamonds that have been colour treated, and can bulk test 4,000 stones per hour.

Photo Caption: The main podium of the Synthetic Diamond Conference, which highlighted the first day of the CIBJO Congress.

The harmonisation of CIBJO’s Coloured Stone Blue Book with its Pearl and Diamond counterparts along with the promotion of Trade Codes was at the centre of the work of the Coloured Stone Commission over the past year, members heard.

There are continuing efforts to improve the harmonisation of definitions and terms in the Gemstone, Diamond and Pearl Blue Books, Coloured Stone Commission President Nilam Alawdeen told the Commission meeting. He thanked Gerard Grospiron, and Sector A President Roland Naftule for their efforts in bringing about increased harmonisation.

The commission’s meeting heard about the many new suggestions and recommendations made since the 2013 CIBJO Congress.

Commission President Alawdeen reported that most of the new definitions, and changes were adopted at the commission’s meeting, while others would be further considered.

“Together with the issue of Trade Codes, harmonisation was the main issue that our Commission members spent most of their time discussing,” Alawdeen told the meeting.

On the issue of Trade Codes, Alawdeen explained that members of the gemstones and jewellery trades are required to give full disclosure on treatments, but that this is sometimes not practical to supply on invoices and jewellery tags.

The use of alphabetical codes originally developed by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), and more recently adopted by CIBJO allows the trade to more efficiently fulfil that responsibility. “If the buyer and seller understand the codes, then they can be simply stated on the invoice and/or jewellery tag. These codes are intended for use only within the trade. Except for the members of AGTA, these codes are not being used most of the time worldwide.

“In Japan, where I am based, we hope to promote and recommend the use of the trade codes. We hope and encourage t the CIBJO country delegations will do the same in promoting their use among their members,” he added.

Speaking on the issue of the Trade Codes, Sector A President Roland Naftule said the problem of disclosure could cause critical problems relating to consumer confidence. “It is vital that all members of the trade give full details about items being sold to consumers in order to maintain consumer confidence and our reputation.

“The codes need to be used all the way from the miners to retailers so that everyone has full information,” he added.

Speaking on the issue of the Trade Codes, Sector A President Roland Naftule said the problem of disclosure could cause critical problems relating to consumer confidence. “It is vital that all members of the trade give full details about items being sold to consumers in order to maintain consumer confidence and our reputation.

“The codes need to be used all the way from the miners to retailers so that everyone has full information,” he added.

The meeting also heard members debating issues relating to emerald and ruby treatments and jadeite.

Photo Caption: The Coloured Stone Commission in session.