SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

The third season of Jewellery Industry Voices, the widely followed webinar series presented monthly by CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, will kick off the same way that it did in 2020, with an in-person seminar in Vicenza, Italy, which will be live-streamed simultaneously as a webinar around the globe.

The two-hour, two-part seminar/webinar is a featured event during the second day of the VICENZAORO September jewellery show. It is entitled “Sustainable Development Goals: Meeting Their Challenge,” and is part of a joint programme of CIBJO and the Italian Exhibition Group, endorsed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to promote the principles of sustainability, responsible sourcing and social engagement in the jewellery and gemstone sectors. It is being co-presented by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC).

The event will focus on industry strategies to support actualization of two of the 17 interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are the set of global objectives designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.” They were approved in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030.

The first part of the seminar/webinar will focus on SDG 5: Gender Equality. It will look at the growing role of women in the mining and extraction of precious materials for the jewellery industry, and consider the significance of their increased involvement. Moderated by Edward Johnson, its panel members include Iris Van der Veken, Executive Director of the Responsible Jewellery Council, which under her leadership launched the Generation Equality Campaign for the global jewellery and watch industry and has just released an in-depth gender equality report; Feriel Zerouki; Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at the De Beers Group, who also is the General Manager of the GemFair artisanal miner empowerment programme in Sierra Leone; Cristina Maria Villegas, Director of Mining at Pact, a NGO operating in 40 countries, who is an expert in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM); and Diana Culillas, Secretary General of the Swiss Better Gold Association, which supports sustainable development of artisanal small-scale miners and establishes responsible gold value chains from these operations to the end market.

The second part of the seminar/webinar will concentrate on SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. It will address a growing movement within the jewellery sector to adopt the principles of a circular economy, addressing global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. Moderated jointly by Edward Johnson and CIBJO’s Executive Vice President, Jonathan Kendall, who initiated the confederation’s Jewellery Industry Greenhouse Gas Measure Initiative, its panel members include Danielle Keller Aviram, a sustainable jewellery and fashion consultant specializing in the development of circular economies; Philipp Reisert, Managing Partner, C. Hafner GmbH & Co., a German precious metal refining company and producer of semi-finished products and components for the luxury goods, technical and dental industries; Gabriel Andre Sauer, Managing Director of Sauer, one of Brazil’s best known jewellery companies; and Oren Schneider, CEO of CIRCA, the leading global buyer of pre-owned high-end jewellery and watches.

The two-hour seminar will take place on Sunday, September 12, 2021, 2:30-4:30 PM Central European Time (5:30-7:30 AM Los Angeles; 8:30-10:30 AM New York, 1:30-3:30 PM London, 3:30-5:30 PM Moscow/Tel Aviv; 4:30-6:30 PM Dubai; 6:00-8:00 PM Mumbai; 7:30-9:30 PM Bangkok; 8:30-10:30 PM Hong Kong; 9:30-11:30 Tokyo; 10:30 PM-0:30 AM Sydney).

The in-person seminar will be conducted on the Main Stage of Hall 7 of the Vicenza Expo Centre, and the webinar will be live streamed at https://www.vicenzaoro.com/en/

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

With fewer than eight weeks to go to the opening of the 2021 CIBJO Congress on November 1, 2021, the first of this year’s CIBJO commissions’ Special Reports has been released. Prepared by the CIBJO Marketing & Education Commission, headed by Jonathan Kendall, the report looks at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the jewellery and gemstone industry, and how the way in which it has adapted will chart its course for the future.

“[W]e have all lived through what have certainly been some of the toughest times for humanity since World War II,” Mr. Kendall writes in his introduction to the report. “COVID has significantly impacted all of us and our ways of living. But as a society in general, and as a business community more specifically, we have learnt to adapt to the new normal. Video conferencing and non-face-to-face selling are now standardly used, leading to a massive rise in Internet sales and an ever more intense focus on social media marketing.

The report focuses extensively on environmental responsibility. “Already today we are witnessing the devastating impacts of increasingly unstable climates. The consequences of even more extreme temperature increases are difficult to contemplate,” Mr. Kendall writes.

“The world’s rapid response to what ultimately is a lesser long-term threat – COVID 19 – is indicative what we as members of humanity can achieve when we come together,” he continues. “It is clear that if we can keep the temperature-warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we can avoid some of the most serious outcomes. It is not too late to decarbonize and invest in a green future, but it is so important that we collectively make real changes now.”

CIBJO congresses serve as the official gathering place for the World Jewellery Confederation’s global membership, and are also the venue for the annual meetings of CIBJO’s sectoral commissions, where amendments can be introduced to the organisation’s definitive directories of international industry standards for diamonds, coloured stones, pearls, gem labs, precious metals, coral and responsible sourcing, known as the Blue Books.

The CIBJO Congress is also where the programme of World Jewellery Confederation Education Foundation (WJCEF), relating to responsible and sustainable activities in the industry and CIBJO’s ongoing cooperation with the United Nations and its development programme is reported upon.

To download a full copy of the CIBJO Market & Education Commission’s special report, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, will hold its 2021 annual congress virtually during the first and third weeks of November, from Monday, November 1 through Thursday, November 4, and then from Monday, November 15 through Thursday, November 18.

The congress will be conducted on the new Zoom Events platform, which allows congress delegates to mingle and interact in a common area, between and during formal meetings.

The November sessions are being timed to enable optimal attendance by delegates linking in from multiple time zones, and thus only one or two will be held on any given day, for not more than two and half hours in total. The proceedings will be recorded, so that those delegates who may be unable participate live will be able to review a session after the event.

Certain of the congress sessions, including the Opening Ceremony, will open to public participation, and registration for them will begin on October 1, 2021. Other sessions will be by invitation only.

CIBJO congresses serve as the official gathering place for the World Jewellery Confederation’s global membership, and are also the venue for the annual meetings of CIBJO’s sectoral commissions, where amendments can be introduced to the organisation’s definitive directories of international industry standards for diamonds, coloured stones, pearls, gem labs, precious metals, coral and responsible sourcing, known as the Blue Books.

The CIBJO Congress is also where the programme of World Jewellery Confederation Education Foundation (WJCEF), relating to responsible and sustainable activities in the industry and CIBJO’s ongoing cooperation with the United Nations and its development programme is reported upon.

“We would have been delighted to hold an in-person event, but ultimately felt that under current conditions a virtual congress is the safer alternative, allowing the participation of the greatest number of delegates,” explained CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. “Fortunately, we have over the past 18 months become quite experienced in running virtual events, and as a result CIBJO’s work has continued unabated. There is a great deal to report and discuss, not least of which is how our industry is being impacted and changed by the COVID pandemic. It will be a fascinating congress.”

A dedicated CIBJO Congress 20201 website has been launched at www.cibjo.org/congress2021.

JUNE 17, 2021

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has announced the public release of its Laboratory-Grown Diamond Guidance, which include a set of operating standards and principles for the laboratory-grown diamond sector that are designed to enhance consumer confidence both in the product and the jewellery industry.

The document can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE.

A key principle of the Laboratory-Grown Diamond Guidance is that, to ensure confidence, consumers must receive complete and unambiguous information about what they are buying, so that they can make consciously informed purchasing decisions. This requires clear and accurate information that the laboratory-grown diamonds were created through industrial processes, and not geologically, as is the case with natural diamonds.

Divided into various sections, the guidance document outlines clear principles for describing laboratory-grown diamonds, well as due diligence measures that should be followed by companies handling laboratory-grown diamond merchandise and attending events at which they are displayed, like trade shows. It furthermore recommends the manner in which loose laboratory-grown diamonds or jewellery set with laboratory-grown diamonds should be disclosed on sales invoices and consignment documents. The document also addresses the subject of laboratory-grown diamond detection technology.

A key section of the document relates to the services provided by gem labs to the laboratory-grown diamond sector. It holds to the principle that the confidence of consumers will be served by their receiving an accurate and objective report of the characteristics of the laboratory-grown stone that they are buying, but, since such reports are unrelated to a laboratory-grown diamond’s rarity, care should be taken that the report itself does not infer a similarity between a laboratory-grown diamond and a natural diamond. The guidance recommends, therefore, that the report is referred to as a “Laboratory-Grown Diamond Product Specification,” and not a grading report.

The Laboratory-Grown Diamond Guidance document was developed by a special working group within CIBJO that was established in 2018, which included representatives of both the natural and laboratory grown diamond sectors. At the 2019 CIBJO Congress in Bahrain, the working group was provided the status of a full committee, the Laboratory Grown Diamond Committee, and it is affiliated to the CIBJO Diamond Commission, although it operates independently.

Before being released, the document was subject to both an internal and external review of industry experts. Like CIBJO’s Blue Books, it is considered a living document, meaning that is subject to change according to new information, technologies and market conditions.

“The public release of the Laboratory-Grown Diamond Guidance represents the culmination of three years of very delicate and complicated discussions, involving a great many experts from across the industry,” said CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri. “They all deserve our appreciation, but especially the members of the original working committee, headed by Wesley Hunt, and including Thierry Silber, Andrey Zharkov, Daniel Nyfeler and Raluca Anghel. They literally volunteered hundreds of hours of their precious time. Above everything else, they stayed true to the most important key principle, and that is that all that we do needs to serve the confidence of consumers in our products and our industry.”

JUNE 15, 2021

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has announced that its Board of Directors has confirmed the membership of the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group.

Founded in 1929, the Hong Kong-headquartered group’s portfolio comprises the CHOW TAI FOOK flagship brand, and other individual brand names, including HEARTS ON FIRE, ENZO, SOINLOVE and MONOLOGUE. Its extensive retail network of more than 4,590 stores, covers Greater China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and the United States, and it also operates a fast-growing e-commerce business. The group’s shares have been listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since December 2011.

“We would like to thank CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri and the Board of Directors for welcoming us,” said Kent Wong, Chow Tai Fook’s Managing Director, Corporate and HK, Macau & Overseas, “and we are grateful to be able to work closely with all members for the continuous development of the industry. CIBJO, whose mission it is to promote international cooperation, has embarked on a range of initiatives to elevate and bolster consumer confidence.”

“Being an industry pioneer with over 90 years of heritage, we understand the need to innovate and stay united to make a truly positive difference,” Mr Wong continued. “In order to fulfil these ideals and promises, it is important that we work collaboratively with our industry peers, bringing in innovative insights. Only when we do so can we herald a new era of growth and synergy.”

“Chow Tai Fook’s becoming part of the CIBJO community represents a giant milestone, and will provide our confederation with a considerably broader perspective, not only in what are several of the fastest growing markets in the global jewellery trade, but also in the online environment, which is consuming an ever larger share of sales,” said Dr. Cavalieri. “Just as the group has led the way in Asia and elsewhere, we expect it to take a leading role in CIBJO.”

JUNE 7, 2021

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has announced that its Board of Directors has confirmed as a new member ASSOROLOGI, Associazione Italiana Produttori e Distributori di Orologeria, the Italian watch industry association.

The organization is the second major watch industry national association to have joined CIBJO’s ranks this year, following the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH in March, and according to CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri this indicates not only the growing collaboration between the watch and jewellery sectors, but also the need of both to create common benchmarks for standards, nomenclature, responsible sourcing and consumer confidence.

Representing manufacturers and importers of watches and supplies for watchmaking, ASSOROLOGI is the industry’s representative in CONFCOMMERCIO, the Italian General Confederation of Enterprises, Professions and Self-Employment, the country’s largest business association.

“I wish to thank President Gaetano Cavalieri and the Board of Directors for the decision to open the World Jewellery Confederation to the activities of the watch industry, and to welcome us in a spirit of mutual cooperation,” said Mario Peserico, President of ASSOROLOGI. “We are ready to contribute to the important work that CIBJO has been carrying out for many years, supporting and protecting the jewellery, gemstone and precious metal markets worldwide. For many years, ASSOROLOGI concentrated its efforts in Europe, but it is now time to broaden our vision to the world. Within CIBJO we will be able to stand united and strengthened in the international markets.”

“ASSOROLOGI’s becoming a CIBJO member is another important milestone in a process that cements the relationship between the watch and jewellery sectors,” Dr. Cavalieri said. “In so many respects we already operate as one united industry, using similar raw materials, supply chains and outlets to the wholesale and retail markets, as well as interacting with the same consumers. Our interests are aligned, as are our challenges. We welcome ASSOROLOGI into our family.”