Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya has announced moves to deal with the ongoing issue of the undisclosed mixing of synthetic diamonds with natural diamonds.

He made the comments on Friday, the second day of the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS).

Following a meeting of representatives from industry bodies and other representatives, Pandya announced the establishment of what he called an International Diamond Monitoring Committee in a bid to eliminate the problem of undisclosed mixing of lab-grown diamonds which has been mostly reported in India.

As a result, the GJEPC will be offering its members to pay half the cost of machines that can detect whether a diamond is lab-grown following consultations on which machines can best achieve that aim due to the large number of machines on the market, he told a press briefing.

Pandya clarified that he was not against trading in synthetic stones, but that there needed to be a clear distinction between lab-grown and natural, mined diamonds in order to ensure that consumer confidence worldwide was not damaged.

The committee’s members – who are from the main diamond centers and who will hold their next meeting at the September edition of the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair – also discussed the need for clear nomenclature for synthetic stones and separate import/export codes, he said.