JCK Retail Panel on "Blood Diamond" Impact
De Beers managing director Gareth Penny, asked Friday about the impact of the "Blood Diamond" movie at the De Beers teleconference, said it had "no discernable impact" on diamond sales. The results of our JCK retail panel survey seem to back that up; we'll have the complete results in a future issue of the magazine, but here are some highlights below. Keep in mind this is not a scientific survey, but a sampling of a few hundred jewelers.
- Did you have more customers asking questions about conflict diamonds this season?
Yes, a lot more - 4.8%
Yes, a little more - 31.7%
About the same as usual - 41.3%
Less than usual - 12.7%
No questions - 7.9%
- How aware are most of your customers about this issue?
Very aware - 3.9%
Somewhat aware - 44.2%
Unaware - 48%
Don't know. - 3.9%
- Do you believe the movie impacted diamond sales in your area?
Yes, it hurt a lot. - 0.8%
Yes, it hurt somewhat - 4.6%
It had no impact - 78.5%
It helped diamond sales - 3.8%
Don't know/can't tell - 12.3%
- Do you require your suppliers to verify your diamonds are conflict free?
Yes - 77%
No - 23%
Regarding that final question: When the World Diamond Council (using a real survey company) asked the same question, they got an answer of 88% — somewhat higher than our number
That said, this is the third time JCK has asked the panel that question; the first time, in 2004, only 45% said yes. When we asked it again in 2005, we got a near identical number of 46.4%. Now, we are happy to say that the number has gone up significantly, but three quarters is still low. I don't want to say anything bad about people nice enough to fill out our JCK retail surveys, but come on, guys, one out of four not complying with Kimberley is still kind of lame. Asking your suppliers to only sell conflict-free diamonds is a relatively simple step; Jewelers of America, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee or diamondfacts can give you a form to do it. What are you waiting for — "Blood Diamond," the TV series?!
(By the way, the documentary "Blood on the Stone," by filmmaker Sorious Samura, with its much talked about scene of a dealer buying diamonds without Kimberley certificates, will be part of the Blood Diamond DVD — a two-disc special edition! – to be released Mar. 20.)
Woody Sagias commented:
Hi Rob, Thanks for your reply on my comments. Again, I don't agree
with this "system of warranties" because retailers and jewelry
manufacturers cannot have control on where their diamonds are
sourced from. If my supplier tells me they are conflict free, I
will take his word for it. He also will take the word of his
supplier and so on. People responsible for controlling conflict
diamonds are those who control the supply and not manufacturers :-)
It is quasi impossible for retailers/jewelry manufacturers that are
not sightholders to know if their diamonds are conflict free. On
the administrative question, I put the Dollar sign and it was
translated into that blog thing. I wanted to edit the comment but I
could not so it would be nice if we could later on :-) thanks
Rob Bates commented:
Hi, Woody ... If everyone in the chain follows the Systems of
Warranties completely -- that is, if everyone is careful about how
they source, and then keeps their original certificates and gets
them audited -- there is a lot more backing up the System of
Warranties than you might think or might originally appear. I am
not sure how many people do that, and it's easily gotten around,
but if people follow it to the letter (which I don't think is
happening now) it should work. So it is disappointing how many
retailers don't take that simple step. Also, administrative
question: What is with the "blogpostdisplay comment" thing in your
post? This blog tool is still new and there are many bugs in it so
I was wondering what that one was. Thanks for reading and for
leaving a comment, Rob
Woody commented:
Regarding the last question, I think the majority of manufacturers
and retailers answer Yes to the question, even though they have no
means of identifying blood diamonds, is because they do not want
their sales to fall and not because of morals. The "Yes" answer is
simply the translation of the "$" sign. I do purchase our diamonds
carefully and I try as much as possible to make sure of the source
of my diamonds but to tell you the truth how could a retailer or a
manufacturer be 100% sure? A retailer asks his manufacturer the
blood diamond question and the manufacturer asks the same for his
supplier who in turn does the same upward the scale. All of them
get the same answer of "Yes, our diamonds are blood free." As
illustrated in the movie Blood Diamond, once those diamonds enter
the legit market, it is impossible to know a blood diamond from a
clean one. Signing a simple paper is easy and everybody has no
problem confirming that their diamonds are conflict free. This
"Blood Diamond" thing is only a hype and hypocritical and as far as
I know, sales were not affected by this hype because consumers know
so little about conflict diamonds and do not necessarily care much
from where diamonds come from. unfortunately, in the end it is the
"$" sign that rules and makes every one happy regardless of who was
digging for that diamond...
