(IDEX Online) - Diamond-producing countries will suffer a consumer backlash unless they can prove their output is responsibly sourced, warned Edward Asscher (pictured), president of the World Diamond Council (WDC).
He said some sectors of the industry believed the Kimberley Process restricted trade, rather than enabling it.
The result, he said, could soon be a "marketplace with two diamond value chains".
Meanwhile, in a separate address, Shamiso Mtisi, on behalf of the KP Civil Society Coalition, identified countries where there were failures to comply with KP requirements - Central African Republic (CAR), Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Angola, Brazil, Venezuela, Lesotho and Sierra Leone (further detail below).
He also said: "Non-KP members around CAR, Sudan and Chad in particular, should be actively engaged by the KP to help address the situation.
"Most importantly trading countries such as UAE and Lebanon should improve and strengthen their systems to curb illicit flow of conflict diamonds that are entering their market."
Mr Asscher, addressing the closing session of a virtual meeting of the Kimberly Process last Friday. said: "Responsibly sourced diamonds will be more in demand. They will obtain better prices in the marketplace, and buyers at jewelry stores will demand proof that they are indeed responsibly sourced before purchasing them as polished."
Consumers increasingly demand that diamonds can be verifiably shown to have been responsibly and environmentally sourced without breaching human rights or social justice.
"Small and medium-sized enterprises will experience difficulties selling natural diamonds, because they do not belong to the elite group of polishers that can guarantee that the diamonds they source and polish are responsibly sourced," he cautioned.
"That will create an unlevel playing field in the...