Post-growth treatment disclosure standards are tightening for CVD stones

Labs and trade bodies are pushing for clearer disclosure of post-growth treatments on CVD lab-grown stones, closing a gap that had let some treated stones go through as untreated.

• CVD-grown stones are often given a post-growth HPHT anneal to improve colour, a treatment that is standard practice but is meant to be disclosed on the grading report.
• Enforcement has been inconsistent enough that some stones have reached the market without the treatment clearly flagged, which matters because annealed and non-annealed stones of the same colour grade aren't quite the same product.
• Tightened lab protocols this year are catching more of these at submission, which should reduce the number reaching dealers without disclosure going forward.

This is separate from the narrowing HPHT-to-CVD price gap we noted between the two growth methods — this is about whether a treatment applied after growth is disclosed, not about which method was used. Every report we pass on states treatment history in full; if you're buying elsewhere, check the report for a treatment line before assuming there isn't one.