DRC, Zimbabwe & Darfur: Diamonds Could Get Tainted Just By Being Too Close « Sorting Table

Link: DRC, Zimbabwe & Darfur: Diamonds Could Get Tainted Just By Being Too Close « Sorting Table.

As Robert Gannicott, head of the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation said in a seminar on reputation last year in Hong Kong, the diamond industry runs the risk of suffering the fate of the fur and tobacco industries if it doesn’t keep a sharp eye on its reputation. Not just from the public but from the big brands that actually offer consumers the whole packaged illusion. The way he put it as I recall was to allude to the tobacco industry example – “The big brands will drop diamonds if they get even a whiff of something like cigarette smoke.” What he meant was that the brands are all extremely sensitive about the reputation they carry and wouldn’t hesitate to purge something that might sully it.

Since the Congo signed a $9 billion loan package with China in return for mining rights.  This article points to the how Congo and other diamond countries could lose in the long run.  If "big brands" drop diamonds due to human rights, environmental abuse, or just working together with China.