The Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) will not publish the Fancy Color Diamond Index (FCDI) for the first quarter of 2020 owing to pandemic-induced disruptions in the supply chain.

After collecting industry data, the foundation said the volume of transactions during the quarter in review was insufficient to establish accurate market pricing for most fancy colour diamond categories.

The Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in extensive lockdown and restrictions that effectively halted retail, shipping and logistics businesses. 

“This situation prevents the conveyance of diamonds from sellers to buyers regardless of fancy colour market prices, while the index methodology is based on data compilation derived from a minimum volume of transactions per category,” explained Miri Chen, CEO of FCRF. “Under these circumstances, the FCRF advisory board has concluded that the integrity of our price discovery process is compromised and has decided not to present pricing data for this quarter.”

FCRF Chairman Eden Rachminov noted that unprecedented government restrictions brought fancy colour diamond trading to a temporary halt.

“Cargo flights are not operating, logistical centres are closed and stores at Place Vendôme, New York and Hong Kong are on lockdown,” Rachminov continued. “We are seeing orders in the pipeline that cannot be fulfilled due to these limitations. We fully expect trade to resume later in 2020 and the pricing data will be available when trade becomes possible again.”