By He Xiating in London | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2025-04-1
A lab-grown diamond ring is showcased at the National Wedding Show, held in London from April 12 to 13. [Photo by He Xiating/chinadaily.com.cn]
Ten years after getting married, Dr Xiong Lan and her partner decided it was time to upgrade their diamond wedding ring. They initially turned to household name—De Beers, the iconic British diamond brand. But what they discovered was startling: a three-carat natural diamond was priced at nearly £80,000, equivalent to a property down payment in China.
“I started to question the meaning behind it,” Dr Xiong recalls. “Why should people pay such a large amount of money for just a stone?”
That’s when a friend introduced her to lab-grown diamonds.
Lab-grown diamonds are created in laboratories that mimic the high-pressure and high-temperature conditions under which diamonds form in the Earth’s mantle. They have the same hardness, brilliance and chemical composition as mined diamond, and look identical to natural diamonds to the naked eye. But they can cost as little as one-tenth of the price of natural diamonds
In the end, Dr Xiong ultimately chose a 5-carat lab-grown diamond, paying less than 40,000 RMB (approximately £4,300)—a fraction of what she would have spent on a natural diamond of the same size.
Dr Xiong’s choice highlights the rapid development of the lab-grown diamond market globally in recent years, with China leading in production.
According to German online platform Statista, the market value of lab-grown diamonds amounted to more than 27.2 billion US dollars in 2023 and is expected to witness a significant increase in market value by 2032, to nearly 59.5 billion US dollars.
The Cultivated Diamond Industry Development White Paper (2024) published by China Machine Tool & Tool Builders’ Association reports that China dominates in the production of rough cultivated diamonds, with over 22 million carats produced in 2023, accounting for more than 70 percent of global output. India still dominates the diamond processing industry, controlling 80 percent of the market, while the US remains the largest consumer market for cultivated diamonds.