JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Falling profitability, declining bank credit, synthetic stones, overgrading and generic diamond marketing were challenging the sustainability of the global diamond industry, World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) president Ernie Blom said on Monday.

Speaking at the 2015 Presidents Meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, he noted that conditions in the industry were “far from easy” and had been so for quite some time.

"These are complicated times for the diamond industry across the world. I must stress that the WFDB is fully aware of the breadth and depth of these issues and that we are taking all steps possible to address them and to aid all our members,” he asserted.

Blom called on diamond industry members to re-think their business strategies and to consider whether they should be paying such high prices for rough goods.

He also asked the banking community and diamond producers to provide more assistance to diamond business members by providing credit lines and reducing the "unrealistically high price of rough stones", since doing business profitably has “become almost impossible”.

He added that banks should accept that adjusting to the new requirements would take time.

Further, Blom revealed that the WFDB had been collaborating with Dutch State-owned bank ABN Amro on the development of a template that the banks and industry could use to fully understand each other's financial needs and requirements.

Despite the challenges facing the industry, Blom stressed that the global diamond business had been through many difficult periods in the past and had come through them successfully and, as a resilient industry, he was confident that the industry would again successfully navigate the current problems.

"Challenges exist to keep us sharp, to keep us on our feet and to keep us quick-thinking and agile. They are not there to get us down and lead us to pessimistic ways of behaving. Let us always remember: we have faced such challenges in the past and we will do so again now.

"We are an industry built on hope and optimism – we create and sell precious jewels that symbolise many of the best human characteristics: love, commitment and long-term relationships. People buy diamonds as a way of saying: I believe in you; I believe in us.

“I am here to say that I believe in you and I believe in us,” he added.