A delegation from De Beers led by CEO Phillipe Mellier had detailed discussions with a team of senior GJEPC functionaries led by Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya when the former visited the offices of the GJEPC at the Bharat Diamond Bourse complex yesterday.

After welcoming the visitors, Pandya presented some of the major concerns of the Indian insudtry to the De Beers representatives. Among the key points raised by him were issues related to pricing of rough diamonds and the need to control rough supplies; the need to ensure fixed supply on regular basis to the SMEs by selling in smaller lots; interaction with the banks to promote financing of the industry and the need to conduct generic promotions, for which GJEPC expressed its support.

The De Beers CEO said that the company has already taken various steps to control supplies of rough diamonds in the last quarter, which has helped the industry. Mellier also said that they agreed about steady supplies to SMEs and would look to develop a method that would make this possible. De Beers is also meeting with bankers and would take them into confidence to help the industry become more bankable. Mellier also supported the need for generic promotions and asked for a detailed plan for which they could equally share expenditure.