A Pivotal Move for the Lab-Grown Diamond Industry
The formation of the Diamond Producers Council (DPC) may mark a turning point for the lab-grown diamond industry, particularly on the supply side.
For years, the segment has been seen as the Wild West, with growers operating independently and little coordination across the market. The result has been persistent oversupply and a dramatic decline in lab-grown diamond prices.
The DPC’s launch signals that the industry is starting to organize itself. The council says it aims to challenge misleading diamond marketing and give lab-grown diamond producers a collective voice. Its membership represents companies with combined annual production of more than 20 million carats, and it has a legal budget of more than $10 million for the next year.
The group’s formation does not, on its own, mean producers will coordinate output or bring supply under control. But a body that tracks production and improves communication among growers could help its members respond more closely to market conditions. That would move the discussion beyond advocacy and toward a more structured approach to the segment’s supply challenges.
The timing may be significant. Lab-grown prices appear to have stabilized just as producers are forming a collective organization. There were price increases across key categories in the third quarter, reported by Edahn Golan, who publishes a price list for the category.
Whether the DPC becomes a forum for greater supply discipline remains to be seen, but its ability to bring producers together could shape the market’s next phase.
The council is also entering the debate over nomenclature.
On the day of its launch, it advised jewelers to reject the World Jewellery Confederation’s (CIBJO) recommendation to adopt “synthetics” as the sole descriptor for lab-grown diamonds. CIBJO recently updated its Blue Books to include that terminology. The DPC’s position signals its readiness to challenge efforts within the jewelry trade to make “synthetics” the preferred term, particularly as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prepares to review its Jewelry Guides in 2028.
The name itself may be part of that message. “Diamond Producers Council” does not include “lab-grown” or any of its synonyms, a significant choice amid debate over whether “diamond” on its own refers by default to natural diamonds. It also echoes the name of the Diamond Producers Association and the Natural Diamond Council, predecessors to The Diamond Collective, which dropped “natural” from its name in a September rebrand.
The choice raises a separate question: could the DPC’s name mislead consumers or conflict with rulings by the FTC and European governments on how lab-grown diamonds should be described? That debate is likely to continue in the short term.
For the broader industry, the more consequential question is whether the DPC can bring greater discipline to a lab-grown market shaped by years of oversupply and falling prices. Any move toward greater supply discipline would add another variable to the forces shaping the wider diamond and jewelry market.
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