Accreditation scheme for jewellery industry launched

SINGAPORE — A new accreditation scheme for the jewellery industry has been launched, to help consumers better guard against unethical jewellers.

The CaseTrust-SJA Accreditation Scheme for the jewellery industry was developed by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) and Singapore Jewellers Association (SJA). Launched this afternoon (Feb 27), the accreditation scheme is open only to members of SJA, who jointly own about 40 per cent of jewellery retail outlets in Singapore.

28 SJA corporate members will have adopted this scheme by the end of the year. These members’ outlets make up 149 of the 700 odd jewellery retail outlets here.

SJA President Ho Nai Chuen hopes for more SJA members to be part of this scheme, and is confident that with the added assurance participating retailers stand to gain from, more members will join in time to come.

Criteria participating retailers have to adhere to include charging gold buyers the actual weight of gold pieces sold, as opposed to the original amount of gold used before crafting the jewellery — an unethical practice which is prevalent among retailers here, said Mr Ho.