IDEX Launches Lab Grown Service

Life moves on. The Ford Model T had an internal combustion engine. The Tesla runs on electricity. Suitcases didn't have wheels before 1970. And now they do. We've been digging diamonds out of the ground for the last 2,500 years. Now we can grow them in a lab. 

IDEX recognizes the inevitable march of progress. There used to be one value chain for diamonds. Now there are two. IDEX used to trade only mined diamonds. Now it trades lab growns as well. 

As a business we are here to serve, providing the industry with the platform it needs and facilitating the global trade of all types of polished diamond, whether they were produced in a few weeks, or a few billion years. 

It's almost 70 years since the first lab grown diamond was produced by researchers at the General Electric laboratory in upstate New York. But it's only in recent years that they have become commercially viable. 

By 2018 the lab grown market globally was worth $18.2bn. It's forecast to reach $29.2bn in 2025 and to account for 10 per cent of all diamond sales by 2030 (all figures from Statista). 

Luxury brands have largely steered clear, eager to maintain the clear distinction between two types of diamond. But many consumers care more about size than rarity. 

Pandora, the world's biggest jewelry maker by volume, uses diamonds in only a tiny proportion of its products. But it made headlines across mainstream media last April with the announcement that it would no longer use mined diamonds, in line with its sustainability agenda.

In 2018 De Beers rocked the diamond world with the news that it was launching Lightbox, its own range of lab growns. It now has a foot firmly in both diamond camps, and has expanded its Lightbox range from ready-made fashion jewelry to selling loose stones.  

Supply shortages prompted by the war in Ukraine, sanctions, US inflation and more are nudging India further in the direction of lab growns. Manufacturers have, increasingly, been cutting and polishing them. And now the State Bank of India is lending money so they can buy the machinery to produce them. 

Life moves on. And IDEX, as a platform that enables trade in polished diamonds, moves with it. We recognize that lab growns are a fact of life, so we are providing a service for our members who want to buy or sell them. 

As Tamar Katzav, our COO, said: "We believe that with the right marketing and transparent business practices, Lab Grown diamonds are part of the diamond trade and here to stay, and as always IDEX strives to provide its members with the facilities to carry out their daily business online, accompanied with our top-notch trusted services." 

IDEX members can, from today, search, buy and sell lab growns, just as they have been doing with mined diamonds for many years. All listings are uploaded in separate inventory files to make sure there's no confusion with natural diamonds. 

There will, in the near future, also be an option to search for matching lab grown pairs and parcels.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Please note, the IDEX Newsletter takes a break next week, but will be back on 15 September.