JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In Friday’s Diamond Industry Updates email to Mining Weekly, the South African Diamond Producers Organisation carries this global warning from international diamond luminary Ronnie VanderLinden: “If we don't gather our wares and if we don't work together, and if we're splintered, we're not going to see a positive end to 2026.”

VanderLinden is vice president of the World Diamond Council and a former president of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association. The World Diamond Council is the New York-based trade association that represents the entire diamond pipeline from miners to retailers.  

VanderLinden was sharing his insights with IDEX Online regarding the challenges facing the diamond industry as he prepares to take over from Feriel Zerouki as World Diamond Council president in May. 

In VanderLinden’s view the diamond industry adapted well to the impacts of Covid-19 but has since faltered. The report by IDEX Newsletter editor John Jeffay highlights, in particular, the failure of last year's Luanda Accord.

The Luanda Accord is a global campaign to market natural diamonds.It generated much excitement when it was announced in June when African producers pledged to contribute 1% of their rough sales to promote their products and counter the rise of laboratory-grown diamonds.

But six months later, there is still no campaign, Jeffay points out, amid VanderLinden’s placing great emphasis on the need for diamond marketing: "I think we've lost out because of the way we've marketed our product, our wares. Education and marketing is what will bring the industry back. My feeling is a lot of these countries dove in at a time where the natural diamond industry is suffering terribly.

"They all threw their hats in the ring with substantial amounts of money in the middle of the year, when their budgets were all set. They don't have the 1% to give at the moment, that's the way I look at it. My hope is that in 2026, the Luanda Accord will come into effect."

Also noted is the absence of sufficient diamond jewellery advertising on US television ahead of the holiday season, in sharp contrast to the significant advertising of laboratory-grown diamonds.  

VanderLinden’s other upcoming presidency priorities are conflict diamonds and US tariffs and he points out that tariffs are hurting wholesalers and manufacturers and that resolution hinges on a US trade agreement with India. He also makes references to consumer with this comment: "We know that debt is skyrocketing out there on credit card debt, defaults on mortgages, on car payments, and so on and so forth. 

"If we don't gather our wares and if we don't work together, and if we're splintered, we're not going to see a positive end to 2026,” warns VanderLinden, who was elected president of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association in 2016 and vice president of the World Diamond Council in 2022. 

Interestingly, the International Diamond Manufacturers Association, which was founded immediately after the Second World War, convened in Antwerp, Belgium, for the first time in 1946.

At that time, two of the world’s three major diamond manufacturing centres – Amsterdam and Antwerp – were starting to rebuild after they had been almost destroyed and their diamond communities decimated.