Next decade will see gap widen between demand & supply of diamonds: DTC CEO

Varda Shine, CEO of Diamond Trading Company (DTC), a rough diamond distribution arm of the largest diamond mining company in the world - De Beers - has dubbed the coming 10 years as 'the diamond decade'.


Shine, who was in the diamond city to inaugurate the jewellery design and manufacturing institute, 'City Centre', of the Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) at Vesu, told TOI, "There will be a gap between demand and supply of diamonds for the coming 10-15 years as the diamond production world over is fast depleting."


Giving a word of advice to the Indian diamantaires on the effective use of the diamond supply for adding value, Shine said, "Amid the gap between supply and demand, it remains to be seen how the diamantaires use the resources. The future of the industry is not about cutting more diamond carats, but to use the carats that exist out there and create value."


Talking about the increase in the rough diamond prices, Shine said that volatility in the diamond prices is due to the gap in demand and supply. The demand for polished diamond is increasing, especially in India, China and US, and this will further fuel the prices of rough diamonds.


"Actually, the diamond prices are not going up any more than the natural reserves like gold and silver. You can take into account the dollar devaluation and the inflation for that matter to compare the diamond prices," said Shine.


Commenting on the ongoing Zimbabwe diamond issue, Shine said that the De Beers group is the big supporter of Kimberley Process (KP). It is important to see that we do not destroy consumer confidence. The consumers would not spend a lot of money on diamond jewellery, if they now that they are mined in the conflict zones. The company's position is that as long as there is no KP there should not be any trade in such diamonds. Hopefully, the Zimbabwe issue is likely to come up for discussion in the KP's Working Group of Monitor (WGM) meeting scheduled in Dubai this week.