F.Hinds' Ethical Trading

Conflict Diamonds

We require our suppliers to ensure that the diamonds supplied to us have been purchased from legitimate sources, have not been involved in funding conflict and are supplied in compliance with United Nations resolutions. Our suppliers must guarantee that the diamonds are conflict-free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by their supplier.

There has been coverage in the media of so-called "conflict diamonds", namely diamonds mined in countries involved in civil war or other conflicts. Some diamonds are mined in areas controlled by war participants and are believed to help finance the conflict. These diamonds generally leak onto the world markets through unofficial channels and become mixed with those from the main producing countries. It is very important that this trade is stopped.

Like almost all retailers, the vast majority of the diamonds we sell come from the main diamond producing countries of South Africa and Botswana as well as Australia, Namibia and Canada. However many other countries also have deposits. These include states where there have been major conflicts such as Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone but also small producers such as Venezuela, Guyana and Ghana that usually have no such ethical problems. These are often poor countries with small economies that rely heavily on diamonds for crucial foreign income. The situation is further complicated by the fact that some formerly conflict affected countries (such as Angola) will need to make use of their natural resources if they are to successfully carry out the rebuilding that their people so desperately require.

While it is clearly undesirable that diamonds from affected countries may be helping to exacerbate conflict, the problem for those down the line is identification. These diamonds constitute a very small proportion of those mined around the world (estimates suggest it peaked at around 4%) as they not only come from minor producers, but also these countries are generally mining below their capacity due to their political situation.

Schemes involving the certification of individual stones are unworkable due to the difficulty of identifying each stone and the cost of certification. For example, we may have a diamond ring that sells for £299 and contains 60 or so 1 point diamonds. It is unrealistic to expect all of these stones - costing less than £5 each - to be certificated (when certificates can cost £60 - £100 per stone). Also, such schemes would taint those diamonds without certificates already in circulation, when the overwhelming majority of these have no connection with conflict diamonds.

We also believe that it is crucial that the scheme does not impact on the diamond trade. Many of the countries involved in mining and cutting diamonds have low incomes per capita and millions of people rely on this legitimate trade for their livelihood. We therefore strongly believe that the Kimberley Process offers the best solution at present because it is strict yet workable. This allows for a more general system that requires those involved in the diamond supply chain to certify they only supply conflict free diamonds.

We do not stock synthetic diamonds, but we are able to supply individual stones for customers special orders if required. We require all of our diamond suppliers to confirm that all the diamonds they supply to us are natural, untreated stones. All of our AnchorCert certificated diamonds are also independently checked by the laboratory when they are graded and we have invested in state of the art synthetic diamond testing equipment for cross-checking our diamonds, both those bought as loose stones and in finished jewellery designs.

We support all practical moves to eliminate conflict diamonds and will only use suppliers who demonstrate responsible trading by confirming the diamonds they supply are in accordance with the Kimberley Process.

We do not support blanket boycotts of the type suggested in some quarters. These could irreparably damage many people's livelihoods, especially in Africa and India. In Namibia, diamonds are the largest industry and account for 40% of foreign exchange earnings. In Botswana they account for 75% of all such earnings and a third of the country's total GDP. These are not rich countries in western terms and they rely heavily on the diamond industry. Such legitimate countries are estimated to represent at least 96% of total diamond production. There are also an estimated 700,000 diamond cutters in India, a very poor country in terms of wealth per capita, and the diamonds cut there are almost predominantly the smaller, lower value stones it would be difficult to track and impractical to certificate.

We feel that this is a responsible way to proceed. We do not want to help to prolong conflicts in any way, but we also do not want to share any responsibility for potentially putting millions of people across the world's livelihoods at risk.

If you have any further queries, please email us at customerservices@fhinds.co.uk or write to us at our Head Office address.

For further details, see the website of the World Diamond Council: www.worlddiamondcouncil.com