Gemesis offers excellent quality. Even trained gemologists can hardly differentiate their elaborately colored diamonds from natural ones. At present they produce yellow and green stones, planning to put pinks on the market by the end of 2004 and blue ones some time in 2005.

Will artificial diamonds make their way into the diamond market? I would be inclined to think so. At least they should. More and more voices have been disclosing the truth about the artificial way De Beers keeps the diamond market under control, and hence customers' buying options as well. Their imposition of astronomical prices is beginning to have results.

The customer is becoming a more intelligent buyer, aware of the product he or she wants to purchase, questioning and analyzing it. People have already become sensitive when it comes to purchasing natural fur. Imagine the immense human waste involved in the harsh exploitation of diamond mine laborers, their extreme poverty. Even worse, think of the role diamonds play in war, all the blood shed.

Why please a minority interest group which has been playing the main part on the world diamonds scene for so many years? There is a more profitable alternative, and one, in this case, which competes on quality. The exceptional qualities of artificial diamonds are already well known. Even under a jeweler's loupe one cannot tell the difference between a natural and a cultured diamond. It may only be a question of time before buyers turn towards artificial diamonds.

Of course, there will always be people who prefer natural stones. Nature is not easy to compete with. In the case of diamonds, competition is moving more towards the conceptual, principled side of the market than to quality. In the normal course of events, without being influenced by any marketing techniques, the question is a different one. Is it worth accepting the idea of benefitting from the results of so much oppression? This might become just as much of an issue as environmental concerns.

Artificial diamonds have not yet become a threat of any importance for the producers and traders of natural diamonds, in other words mostly De Beers. Production is still low. The only producers of artificial diamonds for jewelry are the Gemesis Corporation and Apollo Diamonds Inc. The potential that lies in this resource might well give the fat cats in the natural diamonds industry more than a few sleepless nights.

Yet another reason will still keep De Beers in highly profitable business, at least for the moment. The buying public have a concept of natural diamonds that will not be shaken that easily. This concept has a strongly built foundation. Their marketing policy has fed the concept for decades. It is no easy matter to neutralize a heavyweight marketing campaign, led for so long with the intention of making some people very rich by speculating on human vanity.

Although loudly declared as targeting a different market segment, and not competing with the “real thing”, synthetic diamonds may very well be preferred by many. The natural product might lose some ground after all. Things are beginning to move. It will take more than a few years, but there is a future for the market in cultured diamonds that will make the diamonds market “a better place”.