A massive awareness campaign to educate diamond traders, manufacturers and dealers on identifying and screening of synthetic diamonds in circulation has been launched in the city after synthetic polished diamonds were detected in Varachha's Mini Bazaar diamond market last week.

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has announced a series of awareness programmes in the diamond industry on screening and testing of natural and synthetic diamonds and also about the state-of-the-art synthetic diamond detection equipment.

At least 110 synthetic diamonds were sold to a diamond trader from Varachha last week by a merchant from Surat. The diamonds were purchased from Bhavnagar diamond market. The person who purchased the diamonds from Bhavangar was not aware that he had bought synthetic diamonds.

Official sources said gemology experts from Indian Diamond Institute have been invited to provide technical and practical knowledge on natural and synthetic diamonds to the manufacturers, dealers and the merchants.

The gem and jewellery industry is facing a challenge with regard to screening and testing of natural and synthetic diamonds. "We want to educate our members about the technical features of the synthetic and the natural diamonds and give them exposure to latest technology to enable them to face the current market challenges," said GJEPC regional chairman Chandrakant Sanghavi.

He said, "It is very difficult to differentiate between natural and synthetic diamonds with plain eyes. You need to have technical know-how and a level of practical knowledge to perform the tests. We want our industry to come out clean on the synthetic diamond issue as the detection of undisclosed synthetic diamonds harms our image worldwide."