The dialogue about diamond “chains of custody” needs to take smaller dealers into account, World Federation of Diamond Bourses president Avi Paz tells JCK.

“The Kimberley Process was a success because the entire industry embraced it,” he says. “If [a new program] only involves 200 companies, it won’t be successful.”

He added that if any NGO or group has “a suggestion that could improve the chain of guarantees, I am all for it.”

Likewise, he feels the Responsible Jewellery Council, which he has occasionally criticized, also needs to take all the links of the chain into account.

“I don’t think the RJC is a bad organization, but it’s an organization for the big diamantaires,” he says. “I am the president of a group of 14,000 people. The diamond business is like a pyramid. On the top you have the big diamantaires and on the base, there are thousands of people trying to make a living.”

He adds he is “not against the World Federation joining the RJC.”

“I’m just waiting for the RJC to come to us and give us some way for our members to join,” he says. “I invite them to come to Hong Kong and to speak to us. My door is always open.”

JCK