September 02, 25 by John Jeffay
(IDEX Online) - Botswana is to insist that lab growns are weighed in grams, rather than carats, so that buyers understand they're not buying natural diamonds.
It's part of a broader strategy to protect the value and reputation of Botswana's natural diamond industry, which is central to the country's economy.
Minerals and Energy Minister, Bogolo Kenewendo (pictured), says legal changes to formally recognize the differentiation will be introduced during the next parliamentary sitting.
"We will save the weight for natural diamonds as carats and use grammes for synthetics," she said.
"These are in line with the works that we have been doing around the world. Some of these changes are already enacted in Europe, in the US, and so forth."
Botswana's President Duma Boko has been outspoken in his criticism of lab growns.
At JCK Vegas in June he said: "Lab-grown diamonds are not in the same category. They are not in the same universe. How are we even competing with something made in a factory?"
In 2023 Belgium and all other EU countries legislated that lab growns must not be sold or certified using carat weight.
The US generally continues to use carats for both natural and synthetic diamonds.