What Is A Fair Trade Gem?
Ethically sourced gems involve developing an entirely new approach to the supply chain that, in principal, is similar to the slow food, organics movement. Just as people want the link between farm to table, those developing a fair trade gemstone product are looking for the mine to market custody chain.
Though some gemstones, particularly diamonds, are sourced from large, established mines, most other gemstones come from between fifteen and twenty million small scale miners who support over one hundred million people, world wide.
Small gem miners work with a pick and shovel, moving perhaps a ton of earth a day. They sell their rough (unpolished gemstone still in its matrix) to dealers who consolidate and grade regional resources before polishing or exporting.
The whole process, typified by a series of posts between Jim Fiebig and Mohamed Manzava from August, 2008 is often characterized by a toxic level of mistrust and lack of traceability.
In contrast, the fair trade gem is premised on developing a strong economy at the producer level with fewer dealers in the middle. The mining should not cause massive degradation of the environment and should create as much downstream economy through beneficiation as possible. While purchasing rough from a small artisan miner in Zambia and taking that to an ethical cutting factory in Bangkok is good, having that gem cut in the village where it is mined is even better.
The Big Picture
What exactly constitutes a “fair trade gem” has become a political issue that mirrors the larger discussions within the fair trade community. Some people in the fair trade movement believe that fair trade must go directly to communities and cooperatives. Others believe that fair trade can exist on a larger scale with investments through outside companies entering countries with a high level of reinvestment back into the community.
Another issue is third party certification of fair trade claims. Without the third party adherence to principals and standards, many would not accept a product as authentically fair trade. Yet third party fair trade certification agencies, such as the Fair Labeling Organization (FLO) are accustomed only to dealing with agricultural products.
Nevertheless, even without third party certification, jewelry companies are still claiming to offer fair trade gems. Though methods of sourcing vary, one commonality is that everyone who claims fair trade gems can trace the product from the mine through polishing, directly to the market with greater benefit to the producer communities.
The Scenarios For Claimed Fair Trade Gems
We have three distinct scenarios involved with those who claim to supply fair trade gemstones.
The first scenario involves cooperatives of small scale miners. Small gemstone coops ideal for selling fair trade gems, but the problem is, who is going to organize them an certify their methods? Will the added level of transparency add so much to the cost of the product as to make it not marketable?
With few exceptions, artisan miners are an independent lot. They are not organized and have no way of entering the market, other than through their current distribution channels which bring them very little potential benefit. The Alliance For Responsible Mining (ARM) was developed for the purpose of assisting such miners, though at this point their pioneering work has focused on third party certified fair trade gold.
One exceptional group that is selling fair trade gemstones is the Tanzania Women Miners Association, which is dedicated to the entrepreneurial spirit of Tanzanian woman miners. Gems from this cooperative are mined and cut by Tanzanian women. I featured their director, Shamsa Dawani in an article in Modern Jeweler magazine. I have also purchased some gems mined and cut in Tanzania from that organization.
A second scenario involves companies coming into an area from the outside and developing a fair trade process in the extraction of the raw materials. An example involves pioneers such as Columbia Gems that works out of Malawi with support of that government.
Columbia, which does their polishing in China, has created and documented their own fair trade standards and the tremendous amount of benefit their projects offer to the communities where they operate. Columbia is such a noted pioneer in the fair trade gem arena that many leaders in the jewelry sector consider them as the only company that can claim fair trade gems. Many suppliers and retailers in the jewelry sector base their entire product line upon Columbia’s supply of production. Some were not happy at that company’s attempt to trademark the term “fair trade gems” because such a move is viewed as contrary to the ethos of fair trade.
A third example includes working with individuals who contact the miners and develop relationships based upon a fair trade ethos. Facing malarial infested jungles, they develop trusted relationships with these miners over time. They finance exploration in advance and pay top dollar for the material that is excavated. They then take the rough and cut it in a factory which they know is ethical.
These are small scale operations that depend upon the integrity of the person who develops them. Though there are many people who might work in this fashion, I source from two individuals which I’ve interviewed on my blog, fairjewelry.org:
A Market In Process
In the ideal world, a fair trade gem would come from a third party certified, cooperative mining community with a broad supply of standard, celebrated stock and a broad array of product offerings that would enable production runs and expansive marketing—the commercialization of fair trade gems. This simply does not exist. In fact, by their nature, small scale miners are disorganized, poor and have great difficulty developing an international marketing strategy that would allow them to access the potential that the market holds.
What we have instead, are just a few individuals and a small company with a limited range of gems that offer ethical mine to market custody. Those in the emerging fair trade jewelry market, including myself, continue to market the most ethical gems that the jewelry sector has to offer as fair trade. At the same time, what actually constitutes a fair trade gem is still very much a work in progress for the supplier, retailer and consumer.
The suppliers who follow the “fair trade” approach focus on the high end gems: particularly fair trade rubies and fair trade sapphires. At this point, the processes are too expensive for lower end gems, where cut throat competition and over pricing, drives terrible labor and environmental practices hidden from the consumer. This makes it difficult for the manufacture who wants to hit the mass market.
For the consumer, the best possible scenario for anyone interested in purchasing ethical gems is to look to trace back the sourcing from mine to market, recognizing that perfection should not be the enemy of the good. The pioneering efforts of those involved in this sector are worthy of support.
