N e w s

The Millenium celebrations generated the increase sales of luxury goods worldwide. However, the following recent events in the US that greatly shook up world's economy, lead to drastic decrease of consumer interest to diamonds. This year, jewellers already had accepted possible income decrease. Nevertheless Russian diamond producers found a way to cut down on promotion expenses. Russian diamond monopolist ALROSA company, that launched several diamond cutting plants last year, and Russia's largest diamond cutting company "Crystal" (Smolensk) decided to create a unified trade mark "Crystal-ALROSA" in order to promote Russian diamonds in world's markets. Each stone weighing more than 0.30 carats will have a laser-engraved hallmark "Crystal-ALROSA". The two companies hopes that this new feature will allow them successfully overcome the present crisis.. From now on diamonds produced by Crystal and ALROSA will be certified according to international standards, which will guarantee the quality of the stone.

Raymond Clark, De Beers representative in Russia said that the new venture of Crystal and ALROSA "is a good news for diamond business as there are not star trade marks on the market at the moment. ".

However, both companies do not exclude the use of their own brands.