Tech-Enabled Determination Of Diamond Provenance IMPACT ON GLOBAL TRADE AND CONFLICT DIAMONDS

The diamond industry has been grappling with the problem of determining the provenance of diamonds for quite a while now. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has made the situation worse, with the need for establishing the origin of the stones becoming more pressing. In such a scenario, tracing technologies such as blockchain are assuming immense importance when it comes to keeping conflict diamonds out of global supply pipelines, finds out Suneeta Kaul

- Suneeta Kaul

Determining the provenance of diamonds has always been a challenge, with several factors exacerbating the process of figuring out from where a diamond has come. Concomitantly, the need for pinpointing the origin of the world’s most loved stones has been assuming increasing importance as prominent players seek to shun conflict diamonds and focus on the ethics of the global diamond trade.

The problem of fixing the origin of diamonds and, at the same time, increasing the awareness about the need to keep conflict diamonds out of the trade, was already a humongous issue that did not have clear-cut solutions, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict made the situation much worse. Global stakeholders are now under extreme pressure to ensure that diamonds originating in Russia do not find their way into retail supply chains. But, as said, this is proving to be very difficult, as a diamond may change hands dozens of times before it ends with a consumer.

In such a situation, the only hope that diamond suppliers, traders and retailers have of keeping conflict diamonds out of the pipeline is incorporating technology that can make the process of diamond origin-determination more foolproof. Already, industry players are leveraging cutting-edge tech, such as blockchain and advanced tracking systems, to authenticate the provenance of diamonds. Widespread use of such technology has the potential to revolutionize the diamond trade amid the increasing focus on sanctions on Russian diamonds.

Impact of existing sanctions on Russian diamonds