Martin Rapaport at the JCK Las Vegas 2010

Martin Rapaport was the main speaker at the exhibition JCK "Jewelers' Circular Keystone" which takes place every year in Las Vegas, in the US. His speech mainly targeted the situation in the world industry of diamonds, which is changing rapidly and radically. Although we are supposed to be handling a type of product which “lasts forever”, the reality is only made of changes. What will be the future and who will be the customers of the diamond industry? The average age of people in India is 25, which from a point of energy and enthusiasm is comparable to the U.S. in the 60’s. There are many things around us convincing us that richness is shifting to India and China. We must now consider these countries, once seen only as product providers, such as consumers. Their habits and the values they have regarding life will be of great importance in determining the model of future world consumption. The shifting of demand must be faced by the professionals as a new opportunity. The biggest the wave, the higher the jump, as M. Rapaport stated. Concerning the US, the demand is maintaining on satisfactory levels, yet the feeling of uncertainty rules. Unemployment, insecurity in the work sector, problems in buying real estate and the rise of the bank rates in loans are cornering the diamond industry, which demands important loans. When regarding the investing dimension of diamonds, bigger sized diamonds have a better rendition in comparison to smaller ones. According to Rapaport, professionals have to examine the case of buying black diamonds (when obtaining a good price), since experts predict that their demand will remain strong. The speaker joked saying that if the audience believed that the most important place for diamond extracting is South Africa, they were wrong. The place is Florida, where elder ladies sell their old diamond jewellery, a fact that has led many professionals to target the buying diamond from individuals market. This line of business is not as easy as buying gold from individuals. Buying diamonds is risky and demands a very good knowledge in gemmology. Raparort concluded that everybody should care about the origins of the stones they use, trade or buy. He denounced the working conditions in the mining area of Marange in Zimbabwe, and also accused the position of the Kimberly Process on the matter.