Martin Rapaport I have read and reread Avi Krawitz’s article about the current state of the LGD market to make sure that I did not come to any incorrect conclusions. It is certainly a positive development that you are covering the LGD market under your banner so while you have declared LGD as fraudulent it seems that you are grudgingly accepting the reality that LGD is here to stay and may very well flourish. One suggestion that I have is that if Rapaport will finally embrace LGD and report on market developments perhaps it should make an effort to invest in some primary data sources. The article by Avi quotes a lot from various LGD experts including Amish Shah, Smith of Lightbox and disappointingly it quotes from Marty Hurwitz. Marty with all due respect was a Director of WD Diamonds which went bankrupt. While I think it is convenient to blame the demise of WD on market conditions WD Diamonds was mismanaged. There are a lot of subjective comments in the article which I do not think are substantiated by facts. If you intend to cover LGD professionally perhaps you and Avi should do more fact checking. For example, HPHT does not produce inferior quality stones. In fact if you take a look at most DIF polished they are HPHT.
Chairman of Rapaport Group, an international network of companies providing added-value services that support the development of ethical, transparent, efficient, and competitive diamond and jewelry markets.
Synthetic diamonds are shifting out of the bridal market and taking the fashion jewelry market by storm. Everything about synthetics is changing rapidly right now – pricing, production, competition, branding. No one should assume that what happened in 2023 is just going to continue in 2024. This must-read report covers the current state of the synthetic diamond industry. https://lnkd.in/dwyjfU6x
Sir, this is not synthetic. It’s Lab Grown Diamonds.
Managing Director, Banc & Company Limited
11moMartin Rapaport It is not your style to be so subtle. Can you please reconcile the statement you made last week: Synthetic diamonds are a fraudulent product because of how they are sold. Are you suggesting these since synthetic diamonds are shifting out of the bridal market and is instead taking the fashion jewelry market by storm ? Are you saying that it is ok as long as natural diamond gets back market share in bridal and that LGD are pigeon holed in fashion jewellery ? I find this all very confusing. So this is the subtle message in this article by Avi ? Avi has a soft place in his heart for naturals which is understandable and to be respected. I don’t blame him but perhaps when diamond analysts write articles they should declare any conflicts of interests they may have in the same way that stock analysts declare whether they are holding any positions in the stock they write about. This is all very bizarre and dark. I have to say that it is becoming clear that it is impossible to be an authority in the diamond industry without covering LGD. You should clearly invest in resources to track the LGD industry as you do in the natural diamond category. You don’t have to love LGD but you need to know your enemy. Improve !