Printer said the entire lab-grown diamond process – growing, cutting, polishing and certifying – now happens within India, unlike natural diamonds, which are largely imported and only processed domestically.
Printer’s comments follow remarks from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who said India cuts and polishes nine out of ten natural diamonds worldwide, but has the opportunity to control the full value chain for lab-grown stones, from machinery to finished jewellery.
To keep pace with rising volumes, IGI has begun using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in its grading process. “We have developed AI models to help us… to do a larger volume of diamonds,” Printer said, describing it as a combination of human expertise and technology built to handle the sharp rise in lab-grown output.
Lab-grown diamonds are created in a laboratory rather than mined from the earth, but are chemically identical to natural diamonds. Printer said India’s advantage lies in owning every stage of that process. “It’s made in a laboratory. It’s grown in a laboratory. It’s cut in the factory. It’s polished in the factory, and it is certified at the factory itself,” he said, contrasting this with natural diamonds, which India typically imports from mining countries such as South Africa before adding value through cutting and polishing.
IGI, a third-party certification body, was among the first labs globally to certify lab-grown diamonds. Printer said that early move has helped build consumer trust as demand has grown, particularly among younger buyers.
Gen Z and Millennial consumers now make up roughly 50-55% of IGI’s overall customer base, he said, and are far more informed about what they are buying than previous generations. “Both are diamonds,” Printer said, adding that IGI’s role is to clearly state a stone’s origin, whether mined or man-made, and let buyers decide.
That informed demand is already reshaping spending patterns. “Last year, if you see, 54% of all bridals, lab-growns, in the US,” Printer said. He noted that overall jewellery spending has not fallen. Instead, buyers are using the same budget to purchase larger, cleaner lab-grown diamonds rather than smaller natural stones with visible inclusions.
Printer also pointed to a structural difference between the two markets. Natural diamonds remain limited in supply and carry higher value per stone, while lab-grown diamonds are a volume-driven business enabled by manufacturing capacity rather than geological scarcity. He said IGI has built out grading infrastructure specifically to manage this rising volume as production scales further.
For the full interview, watch the accompanying video
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