Alrosa

For years, luxury’s biggest jewellers have dismissed synthetic diamonds as inauthentic. But an investment by LVMH’s venture fund in lab-grown diamond company Lusix suggests this calculus may be changing alongside consumer interest in ethical and sustainable products.

The sanctions against the Russian diamonds now have the diamond trade at the centre of the war, and could send jewellery companies reeling.

The five biggest producers are estimated to be sitting on excess stock worth about $3.5 billion, which could increase to $4.5 billion — or about one-third of annual rough-diamond production — by the end of the year.

Plunging diamond prices are causing hardship for people throughout the global supply chain from big mining operators in Africa, Russia and Canada to small-scale cutters and traders across Europe and Asia.