CIBJO concluded its annual congress Monday at the at the International Congress Centre in Munich Germany. During the four-day event, some 135 delegates from national jewelry, gemstones and precious metals associations from around the world, as well as representatives of many of the largest multinational corporations involved in the industry, considered and debated a range of issues on the agenda of the international jewelry sector.

Among the highlights of the 2010 CIBJO Congress was a decision by the CIBJO Diamond Commission to broaden the number of acceptable terms to describe synthetics diamonds, the release by the CIBJO Gemmology Commission of the Gemmology Laboratory Blue Book, the approval by the CIBJO Coloured Stone Commission of a set of codes to be used within the industry to describe gem treatments, the release by the CIBJO Precious Stones Commission of a new appendix to the Precious Metals Blue Book giving information on the precious metal finenesses standards around the world, and the release by the CIBJO Marketing & Education Commission of a diamond, colored gemstone, pearl and precious metals guide for jewelry consumers.

At the conclusion of the congress, CIBJO released a statement strongly endorsing the Kimberley Process and the World Diamond Council’s Supportive System of Warranties. The statement also said that CIBJO expects full and timely implementation of the stringent controls pertaining to the Marange diamond production in Zimbabwe.

CIBJO called on members of the diamond, gem and jewelry industry and trade to significantly boost the industry’s efforts to ensure that no diamonds from the Marange diamond fields are traded, specifically until the Kimberley Process monitor is in place and will be actively and effectively controlling rough diamond exports from this specific area.

The 2010 CIBJO Congress was hosted by the Messe München and the Inhorgenta Europe 2010 trade show.

JCK