In a report published in October, Forbes noted that cultivated diamonds are appearing in more traditional jewelry stores this fall and winter. This is not surprising as in recent years, cultivated diamonds have been sold online and most traditional jewelry brands have avoided selling cultivated diamonds in their jewelry stores, but this year cultivated diamonds are appearing in the Windows of more and more traditional jewelry stores, providing another option for consumers looking for larger carats at lower prices.

According to the report "2021 Cultivated Diamond Market Size and Consumer power Data" released by the US business analysis website Market Watch in September this year, the market size of cultivated diamonds this year has increased significantly compared with last year, and its compound annual growth rate has increased significantly. Cultivated diamonds seem to have the potential to replace natural diamonds, perhaps in the eyes of jewelers such as De Beers who put forward "diamonds are forever", the expanding market size of cultivated diamonds only distinguishes the diamond market, and will not replace natural diamonds, so what is the truth?

# Why are cultivated diamonds moving from the lab to the market?

Cultivated diamonds, also known as lab-grown diamonds, have a long history of research and development. In the middle of the last century, the United States General Electric Company developed cultivated diamonds, but due to technical limitations, these diamonds are brown and yellow, and are only used in industry. Since then, scientists have continued to study the technology and developed higher quality and lower cost cultivated diamonds. In 2012, the United States cultivation diamond company Gemesis announced that it has developed a type IIa colorless diamond (refers to no nitrogen and other impurities, the composition of very pure diamond) synthesis technology, made a major breakthrough in the cultivation of diamond technology, since the gem-grade cultivation diamond technology is becoming more mature.

Early cultivated diamonds were brownish-yellow due to technical limitations

While the quality of cultivated diamonds continues to improve, its cost is also decreasing, and the market prospect of cultivated diamonds is very attractive. At the same time, the natural diamond market is weakening, but also to cultivate the diamond market has more room to rise. And in recent years, consumers have become increasingly environmentally conscious and ethical, which has significantly influenced consumers' considerations when purchasing diamonds.

Not only does the mining of natural diamonds emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, but acidic wastewater discharged during the mining of diamond mines can contaminate local water sources. Acid wastewater pollution is the most serious environmental problem caused by the diamond mining industry. Jewellers also argue that few industries in the world pollute the environment more than mining.

Compared to natural diamonds, cultivated diamonds are obviously more environmentally friendly. Us diamond producers point out that the carbon emissions from mining natural diamonds are twice that of growing them. Natural diamonds also emit significant amounts of carbon during production and transportation, but cultivated diamonds do not.

The more obvious advantage of cultivated diamonds is the lower price, which is currently about 70% of the price of a natural diamond of the same grade, and as technology advances, the price of cultivated diamonds will be reduced. In addition, the quality of cultivated diamonds is not significantly different from that of natural diamonds, and they have a variety of colors - natural colored diamonds are extremely rare treasures, and synthetic colored diamonds are common. The lower cost of growing diamonds also gives jewelry designers more creative room to experiment with more cuts.

# The market for cultivated diamonds and natural diamonds further diverges

Cultivated diamonds have now appeared in major jewelry stores, and large-scale entry into the market has become an inevitable trend, and the problem of whether it can replace natural diamonds has aroused widespread concern.

According to the research report, diamond consumption scenarios mainly include marriage, gifts, and daily wear, and marriage consumption is at the top of the diamond consumption structure. In a report released in February, Bain & Company pointed out that growing sales of cultivated diamonds will gradually dominate the market for everyday wear, while natural diamonds will remain a monopoly in other markets with higher consumption levels.

Organizations conducted research on consumers and asked, "What do you think of when you think of growing diamonds?" When it comes to this question, "artificial" and "fake" are the words that appear most frequently in the minds of consumers. This shows that the popularization of cultivated diamonds still has a long way to go, and the market for natural diamonds and cultivated diamonds will continue to diverge.

Cultivated diamonds can also be as durable as natural diamonds, and Bain's report foresees the expansion of cultivated diamonds to a wider range of mass jewelry, targeting a different audience than natural diamonds. Due to differences in price and other aspects, the audience and positioning of cultivated and natural diamonds have gradually diverged, and the grading trend of the diamond market will further develop.