Latest news with #labgrown
CBC
5 days ago
- Business
- CBC
The natural diamond industry is getting rocked. You can thank the lab-grown variety for that
Social Sharing When Aret Oymakas started selling diamonds years ago, engagement ring shoppers came in looking for one thing for their brides-to-be: a real, mined diamond. "It was just a diamond," said Oymakas, owner of Livia Diamonds in Toronto. "And you got what you were able to get … in terms of design and budget." These days, not so much. Lab-grown diamonds have become massively popular in recent years, giving the traditional, mined version a run for its money. Oymakas says natural diamonds made up 100 per cent of his business until 2018 when lab-grown diamonds came on the market in a big way. Now, natural diamonds account for only three to four per cent of his business. According to experts like Oymakas, ethics, cost and the rising price of every other part of life for new couples has chipped away at the popularity of real diamonds. And that's having a big impact on the mining business — including in Canada's North. WATCH | Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges: Northern mining industry takes a hit as lab-grown diamond popularity surges 7 days ago Hundreds of people are being laid off at a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories as production halts, signaling a shifting industry. Lab-grown diamonds are surging in popularity, offering a similar sparkle for a fraction of the price. Just last week, Burgundy Diamond Mines announced it would be laying off hundreds of employees and temporarily suspending operations at one of its open-pit mining sites, Point Lake, in the Northwest Territories. A communications manager for the company, Ariella Calin, said the open-pit mine was "proving to be sub-economic," given the recent drop in the value of diamonds. According to data from Tenoris, which tracks diamond retail prices, natural diamonds in stores now cost 26 per cent less than they did just two years ago. Canada exported $2.21 billion worth of diamonds in 2019, making it the third biggest diamond producer in the world at the time. And with three diamond mines in the Northwest Territories alone, the diamond industry employs thousands of people directly in that province and many more indirectly according to experts, meaning declines in the market will have an outsized impact in the North. Mined vs. lab grown? Mined diamonds are forged deep in the earth through heat, pressure and time, before they're dug up, crafted into shape and set into jewelry, such as engagement rings. Lab-grown diamonds essentially replicate that process above ground — using chemicals and extreme heat, diamonds are forged in a chamber in a matter of weeks. "I always make the analogy of ice made in your refrigeration system versus ice made outside in the cold," Oymakas said. "Physically they're identical. There's no difference whatsoever." But some experts stress there is still a difference. Graham Pearson, professor with the University of Alberta's department of earth and atmospheric sciences, says that the natural formation of diamonds deep underground results in a "complexity" you can't get with the lab-grown variety. "What you get with [a natural diamond] is that you're holding an amazing fragment of the deepest part of the earth. A natural diamond is unique," he said. Lab-grown diamonds, he argues, are all the same, made from an exact recipe — like a print of a painting. Why have people flocked to lab-grown? To engagement ring shoppers, however, the only visible difference in the price tag, according to Oymakas. Whereas a two-carat real diamond engagement ring might cost $35,000, Oymakas says a two-carat lab-grown diamond with the same clarity and colour could only be about $3,500. "With the cost of everything going up these days — housing, wedding expenses — people don't want to spend a fortune on a ring," Oymakas said. That means people can afford far bigger stones if they buy synthetic, often still for less than what a natural diamond would have cost. The technology used to make lab-grown diamonds has also dramatically improved since they first came onto the scene, according to Oymakas. He says this allows them to create more customizable stones that have a unique shape or tone for instance, and that's proven to be a draw to customers. Ethics are another reason. Forced labour and child labour are problems in the diamond mining industry in Africa in particular, and the difficult physical work often yields little pay. Many shoppers want to avoid "blood diamonds" — stones mined in African conflict zones that in turn are used to fund rebel movements. While an international grading system called the Kimberley Process has since been instituted to help consumers know where their diamonds come from, there's still debate about how well the system works. Stefanie Beninger, an associate professor of marketing at Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands who has researched the marketing of diamonds, says the ethical component played a big role in the natural diamond's demise. The blockbuster 2006 movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio exposed many consumers to the realities of the diamond mining industry. So, years later, when lab-grown diamonds that didn't carry the same ethical concerns emerged on the market, consumers were drawn to them, Beninger said. (Pearson points out that lab-grown diamonds do, however, take a lot of energy to forge in a lab, meaning they're not entirely free of negative impacts either.) Beyond that, Beringer says the shift has been generational. De Beers's famous "A diamond is forever" slogan sold baby boomers and Gen Xers on diamond engagement rings as a traditional symbol of enduring love, Beninger said. But millennials aren't buying it. Beringer says that generation, as well as Gen Z, has faced significant financial challenges, on top of being more socially conscious. "From a functional perspective, [synthetic diamonds] work the same. It's a lot cheaper, and it's more traceable where this came from," Beninger said. And, Beninger says fewer millenials are getting married compared to their parents or grandparents — a Pew Research study found that as of 2021, 25 per cent of 40-year-olds had never been married, a new record. In 1980, that figure was just six per cent. The diamond industry launched a "Real is rare" campaign in 2016, Beninger points out, which attempted to market real diamonds to millennials in a less traditional way. In looking at the sales of lab grown versus natural diamonds, Beninger says it's clear that the campaign didn't pull them back to the mined variety. The idea of a mined diamond as "real" and a lab-grown one as fake just hasn't stuck with younger generations, Beninger said. Northern mining business in trouble For Oymakas, lower diamond prices haven't hurt his business. He says while the price of the rock itself has dropped, people are buying bigger synthetic diamonds or perhaps buying more jewelry because the price is more affordable. But it's a different story for Canada's North, where thousands of people are directly employed in diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. "That region of the country in a lot of cases depends on diamonds for [its] livelihood," Zimnisky said. There are three diamond mines in the Northwest Territories — and all of them are now winding down operations. Diavik diamond mine is set to close early next year, while the Gahcho Kué mine's estimated lifespan is set to 2031. Pearson says the closure of the industry in Canada's North will have a "tremendous" impact — with what Pearson estimates would result in 1,500 direct jobs and many more indirect ones lost, plus an exodus of people from northern communities. The Ekati diamond mine, which the Point Lake mine is part of, was the first in the country when it opened in 1998. To have the industry shutter after only 30 years would be a shame, says Pearson.
Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Times
The million dollar question: are diamonds losing their sparkle?
It takes three billion years, volcano-like pressure and 1000C-plus temperatures to form 'natural' diamonds that are mined and polished before being lovingly placed on the third finger of the left hand of millions of women across the world. Technological advances mean, however, that engagement ring sized-diamonds are increasingly being made in vast laboratories, predominantly in China, in as little as a week. These lab-grown diamonds, chemically and visually identical to mined diamonds, are much cheaper to produce than the cost of extracting real diamonds from deep below the earth's surface in Russia, Canada and southern Africa. Boyfriends and fiancés can now pick up lab-grown diamonds for less than a tenth of the price of similarly sized natural diamonds and their prices are falling sharply as the technology improves further and lab production increases. • Diamonds in the rough: struggling industry's fight against the lab-grown fake 'Man-made diamonds have captured about a 25 per cent share of global diamond demand by value spent,' Paul Zimnisky, founder of Diamond Analytics, said. 'This is up from nil ten years ago.' He said that although some consumers were drawn to the lower prices of lab-grown diamonds he did not expect them to replace the allure of natural diamonds. 'Lab diamonds are a manufactured product that can be produced at will so they are not rare, and this is reflected in the price,' he said. 'Natural diamonds are still one of the most valuable things you can own on a value to size and weight ratio. Humans have valued rare and precious metals and gems since the beginning of time. I don't think this will change anytime soon.' The spectacular growth of lab-grown diamonds has, however, helped to send the price of natural diamonds reeling and plunged the traditional diamond mining industry into crisis. The price of a one carat natural diamond, roughly the size of an average engagement ring, has fallen about a third from a peak of $6,819 (£5,030) in May 2022, according to the jewellery analyst firm Tenoris. The wider Bloomberg polished diamond index, which takes in prices across the '4Cs' of diamonds — cut, colour, clarity and carat weight — has fallen 53 per cent from a peak of 6,270 in March 2022. Prices had spiked after the pandemic as weddings put on hold by Covid finally took place and consumers had lockdown savings to burn. Olya Linde, a partner at Bain & Company, who specialises in natural resources, said: 'The million dollar question everyone in the diamond industry is asking is: is this bottom?' She thinks it might be, as the price of both polished and rough diamonds showed slight signs of growth in the first two quarters of this year. 'It gives a lot of hope for the industry that the worst might be over and the market will stabilise,' she said. 'But there is a lot of inventory for people to work through.' The traditional diamond industry has hugely cut back production in order to try to reduce that stockpile and recreate some of diamonds' original allure: scarcity. De Beers, the diamond miner founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1888, which coined the slogan 'a diamond is forever', has cut its 2025 production expectation from 30 to 33 million carats to 20 to 23 million. Its owner, Anglo American, has put De Beers up for sale with a price tag of about $4 billion, about half its 2023 valuation. London-listed Gem Diamonds announced plans this week to cut a fifth of its workforce and temporarily cut executives' salaries to try to 'protect shareholder value'. The company's market value has collapsed to £7.9 million from £550 million when it floated in 2007. Linde is confident that natural diamond prices will not fall much lower but she warned that they were unlikely to return to anywhere near their peak. In order to achieve some price growth she said natural diamonds needed to be 'returned to their position as a luxury product' and consumers needed to have faith in a growing world economy. Ben Davis, head of European mining research at RBC Capital Markets, said it was entirely possible that natural diamond prices could return to recent highs but it 'would require significant curtailment of both mining and synthetic supply and heavy and length investment in marketing'. The tariff trade war is also distorting the market, he said, by 'incentivising destocking further' and damaging consumer confidence to buy such expensive luxury items. Davis and Linde agreed that a huge advertising campaign was needed to remind people of the luxury and scarcity of natural diamonds. 'We know it has been done before and it can be done again,' Linde said. 'There needs to be buy-in not just from the miners but throughout the value chain.' Yoram Dvash, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, called for the industry to unite to protect the natural diamond industry's value from the threat of lab-grown diamonds. 'The diamond industry is currently at a critical juncture,' he said. 'The meteoric rise in the penetration of synthetic diamonds into the market, which began as a marginal phenomenon, has become an unprecedented flood that threatens the value, image and future of the natural diamond.' He warned that consumers were 'already having difficulty distinguishing between a natural diamond and a lab-grown imitation' and said a considerable marketing campaign was needed to protect natural diamonds' integrity. 'This trend is not just about sales, it demonstrates changes in values and culture,' he said. 'It is about the loss of the sense of intrinsic worth, wonder and uniqueness that have underpinned the natural diamond for generations.' Robert Wake-Walker, co-founder of WWW International Diamond Consultants, said it was not just the growth of synthetic diamonds that had hit the prices of natural diamonds. 'The primary reason for the growth of synthetic diamonds over the last three years is that people have fundamentally been hit on all sides by macroeconomic pressures: mortgages are higher, childcare costs are higher, everyone's essential outgoings have increased,' he said. 'In that context, spending £2,000 to 5,000 on a purely discretionary product becomes a huge challenge to most. There needs to be a situation where people can aspire to buy these luxury products for each other again.' Another industry analyst said lab-grown diamonds were 'an alternative that allows people to purchase something that does the same thing, but they can afford to buy. You'll have people saying to their girlfriend, 'We have this pot of money: we could buy a natural diamond or if we go for a lab-grown diamond we will have a bit left to go into the kids' college fund.' ' • Gemfields' Bruce Cleaver: 'We're like De Beers was 30 years ago' Wake-Walker added that many lab-grown diamonds were being sold to people who would not have bought natural diamonds. 'It is bringing more people into the broader jewellery market, people who would never have considered diamonds before but when you can get a pair of diamond earrings at Accessorize for £50 for a night out, why not?' He said the two industries could co-exist and warned that hostile attacks on each other damaged the public's perceptions of the whole industry. Not all agree with this approach. At the International Gold and Diamond Conference in New York last week Stuart Samuels, president of the diamond jewellery manufacturer Premier Gem Corp, described the lab-grown diamond industry as 'parasites' when asked if the two industries could work together. 'The parasite always likes to co-exist with the host,' he said. 'It's the host that doesn't want the parasite. So it's very nice to say let's co-exist but you're looking to replace me, to kill me off.'
Wall Street Journal
19-07-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Lab-Grown Meat Goes Upscale With Faux Foie Gras
Can lab-grown foie gras find a niche in the luxury food market? Makers of lab-grown aka cell-cultured meat have pitched the product as a fix for our food chain's environmental and humanitarian issues. But it comes with its own baggage—it is expensive to produce, it can't nail the protein's texture and it starts 'life' as sludge.
Bloomberg
19-07-2025
- Science
- Bloomberg
Lab-Grown Salmon Set to Hit the Menu at Hot Seattle Oyster Bar
By and Kate Krader Save Seattle restaurant The Walrus and the Carpenter is known for its fresh oysters that showcase the terroir — or more accurately, merroir — of the waters in which they were raised. But starting in August, the restaurant will be serving fish that doesn't have a merroir at all because it's been grown from cells in a lab. The Walrus and the Carpenter will be the third restaurant in the world to serve startup Wildtype's lab-grown salmon.
Entrepreneur
14-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Post-COVID Luxury Isn't Louder — It's Ethical
Luxury is no longer defined by shine, but rather by story. In a market where meaning outpaces margin, brands built on values are rewriting the rules. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Luxury isn't about more anymore. It's about meaning. I've walked red carpets draped in elegance. I've stood on the aspirational side of the velvet ropes once seen as symbols of success. But over time, I've learned: if luxury comes at the cost of our conscience, it's not luxury…it's illusion. Today's luxury consumer isn't dazzled by shine alone. They're asking deeper questions: "Where did this come from?" "What's the real story behind it?" "Does this reflect who I am?" I've studied the diamond industry extensively. It's a clear case study in how legacy models are being challenged. Traditional mining comes with a staggering environmental price. A single carat can displace 250 tons of earth, consume four cubic meters of water and release 109 kg of CO₂ into the atmosphere. In contrast, most lab-grown diamonds are now being produced using clean, renewable energy, either having already transitioned or are actively shifting toward more sustainable sources. That's not a footprint. That's a crater. And people are waking up to it. The new standard is no longer just craftsmanship. It's consciousness. Until recently, luxury brands relied on opacity: unclear sourcing, inflated markups and hidden impacts. But the pandemic did more than disrupt supply chains. It rewired desire. We've hit an inflection point. And the brands leading the next chapter? They've already stopped pretending business as usual will work. Related: What Is Sustainable Fashion? Everything You Need To Know. The market shift When the world doubted, I said with conviction that diamonds were old school, and lab-grown was the future. But even I didn't realize how fast that future would arrive. What we're seeing now is a full-blown shift. In India, where heritage is prized, and in Europe, where tradition defines value, the next generation is buying with both eyes open. When we started Solitario, a jewelry brand specializing in lab-grown diamonds, we knew we were doing more than launching a product. We were challenging a legacy industry to evolve. In countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where diamond mining is rampant, the downstream effects are devastating: Deforestation, water contamination and loss of biodiversity. On top of that, illegal trafficking in these regions funds armed conflict, destabilizing entire communities. This is what luxury used to hide behind price tags. But that mask has slipped. We didn't polish the narrative. We cleaned it up until only the truth remained. We engineered traceability into our model. No exploitation, no greenwashing, no fluff. Just a product that stands on the merits of both ethics and aesthetics. In Europe, 70% of luxury shoppers consider sustainability adoption by luxury brands important, while the U.S. market is catching up. Research shows that a quarter of American consumers in this bracket consider ethics as very important in their purchasing decisions, and we expect that trend to accelerate. If your product's story can't be told with pride, then it's time to rewrite it. Related: Why Having A Strong Brand Isn't a Luxury — But a Necessity The business case for sustainable luxury The lab-grown diamond market is projected to grow in financial value at nearly 10% annually, reaching $55.6 billion by 2031. So, from our perspective, our main challenge is how to scale sustainably in a strictly business sense whilst maintaining environmental consciousness. The old luxury playbook of over-capitalized, high-margin, limited distribution is being outpaced. Today, brands that lead with values are drawing real traction through lean, franchise-driven models. We've had 70+ franchise requests land in our inbox. Not through paid intermediaries. Just brand conviction alone. In my experience, vertical integration through direct lab relationships also provides better control over quality and costs. Governments are taking notice. India now offers zero import duties on lab-grown diamond seeds and machinery, positioning the sector as a strategic national industry. Meanwhile, institutional capital is getting pickier. ESG regulations are tightening. And Millennials and Gen Z, now the dominant consumer base for diamonds in the U.S. and China, don't chase labels. We didn't scale because we shouted louder. We scaled because we listened better. These generations are value-aligned rather than brand-loyal and demand traceability. The question isn't whether traditional luxury brands can evolve. It's whether they can do it fast enough to stay relevant in a world that now expects receipts: ethical, operational and financial. Rewriting the rulebook What's happening in luxury jewelry is part of a larger trend and even cultural movement. The next decade of business will belong to those who can hold profit and purpose in the same breath. From carbon fiber in wristwear to ethical innovations in edtech and agritech, disruption now means more than invention. It means intention. For every venture I back, I ask two questions: Is it good for business? Is it good for the world? If the answer isn't yes to both, it's a pass. Moral conviction and market clarity are not mutually exclusive. It's more than OK to have a clear conscience and make your model scalable and profitable. If we can make luxury cleaner, fairer and still perform at an IPO level, then we have rewritten the rulebook. Our upcoming IPO, for example, is grounded in unit economics and capital-efficient expansion. Our growth has come without heavy debt or marketing bloat, simply because the underlying business model works. Put another way, values scale better than virality. Redefining luxury This approach is attracting institutional attention precisely because it is designed for scrutiny. That is the real disruptive factor. What we are really witnessing is luxury itself being redefined. As leaders, it's our duty not to simply reflect culture, but to help shape it. So I suggest using what I call "weaponized curiosity" to build better systems. Instead of asking, "What will sell?", a better angle is, "What will serve?" That is how we will build a new legacy for the generations to come.
