In an effort to revitalise the World Jewellery Confederation’s distribution arm (which comprises retail and wholesale) and manufacturing division, CIBJO has voted in new chairmen for both its distribution and manufacturing sectors.
Hadassin – who attended last week’s annual CIBJO congress in Portugal – explained, “In the last couple of years sectors B [retail and wholesale] and C [manufacturing] have been fairly quiet and [CIBJO has] decided to try and revitalise them.”
CIBJO has three sectors and the third one, which has had the highest profile in the past few years, is the technical division that deals with the confederation’s Blue Books.
Hadassin, who was already a director of CIBJO, has now been elected to its executive committee and is also involved in a global commission comprised of industry association executives to swap ideas and discuss ways to improve the running of their respective organisations.
He said, “One of our first assignments will be to bring out a corporate social responsibility booklet for small, ‘mum and dad’ stores, because there’s nothing really out there.”
Hadassin admitted that CSR was “underappreciated in Australia” at present, but said it was bound to become more important in years to come. “It will come eventually. In Australia we’re behind the times as far as CSR is concerned, there’s no doubt about that.”
CSR working group
Separately, CIBJO has taken up the CSR baton with the establishment of a working group to formulate an all-encompassing corporate social responsibility framework for the international jewellery and gemstone sectors.
Matt Runci, chairman of the Responsible Jewellery Council, will be the working group’s chairman.
The CSR framework will be delivered in the form of an in-depth guidebook that will include practical guidelines as well as case studies and examples from out in the field.
“The guidelines will have to serve all participants in the jewellery and gemstone industry and trade, enabling individuals, as well as larger and smaller companies, to adopt verifiable CSR practices at the grassroots level,” CIBJO president Gaetano Cavalieri said.
Hadassin clarified that while CIBJO’s working group would tackle CSR for larger businesses, the CSR booklet produced within the retail and wholesale sector would specifically cater for small business and independent stores.
Speaking in Porto, World Diamond Council president Eli Izhakoff welcomed the CIBJO initiative. “It is in everybody’s interest that our industry will stand at the forefront of ethical business practices. To achieve that, we have to work together to ensure that CSR compliance is within everyone’s reach,” he said.
It was also decided that a global ‘Centre of Excellence’ for CSR would be established in Antwerp this May, to help address the needs of the jewellery business sector worldwide.
Gem Blue Book amendments
Gemstone nomenclature was also a topic of discussion at this year’s conference. The Coloured Stone Commission voted to add to its gemstone guidelines the terms “laboratory-created” and “laboratory-grown” as acceptable descriptors for synthetic gemstones. This now falls into line with the Diamond Blue Book.
The amendment to CIBJO’s coloured stone Blue Book means that a synthetic coloured gemstone can be described by the name of the naturally occurring gemstone immediately preceded by the word “synthetic,” “laboratory-created” or “laboratory-grown”.
However, the Gemstone Book emphasises that, when displayed, the descriptors “synthetic,” “laboratory-created” or “laboratory-grown” have to be given equal prominence to the coloured gemstone name.
CIBJO’s Pearl Commission discussed the terminology used to describe different types of pearls and agreed that amendments need to be defined to increase transparency in the industry and for the public.
For example, where place names are mentioned in connection with natural pearls, it was recommended that an article governing the use of such terminology be created. For example, a “Basra Pearl” would refer specifically to a natural pearl from the Arabian Gulf.
Clause 4.2.7 of the Pearl Book that currently describes the use of the word “pearl” without qualification was also discussed but no resolution was reached. It was proposed that a forum of key players in the international pearl industry convene within the next six months to continue discussions and try to reach a consensus.
It was agreed that a short document that extracts the salient points from the Pearl Book would be drawn up to give the trade a ‘Quick Reference Guide’.
Next year’s annual congress will be held in Vicenza, Italy, in May and will coincide with the town’s spring jewellery trade show, Vicenzaoro Charm.
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