International Herald Tribune writes:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/09/business/wbgems.php
Tracing the path of a colored stone through the vast and largely unpoliced gem trade is a complicated affair, even for the experts. Unlike diamonds, most of which are marketed by a handful of mining juggernauts through a supply chain that is under increasing scrutiny, gems follow a haphazard and opaque route to market that lends itself to smuggling.
That has not discouraged a growing number of gem cutters, dealers, jewelry manufacturers and retailers from demanding to know that the gems they buy and sell have been handled with social and environmental integrity.
"We're selling something nobody needs," said Earl Allen, co- owner of 1700 Ocean, a jewelry store in Santa Monica, California, that recently started a line using Fair Trade Gems. "If you're going to buy stones that finance terrorism or send 9- year-olds into holes, I don't want to be a part of that."
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