Bahrain’s DANAT offers fast turnaround on gems, pearls
By David Brough
November 22, 2017 – The Bahrain Institute for Pearls and Gemstones (DANAT) offers the latest verification technologies, highly qualified specialist staff and rapid turnaround times on goods.
Now raising its profile on the international gems and jewellery market following its launch earlier this year, DANAT has a highly visible presence as an exhibitor at Jewellery Arabia this month and will be seen at international trade fairs in 2018, said DANAT’s CEO, Kenneth Scarratt, a respected gemmologist with a background at the GIA and other lab certification bodies.
Scarratt is driving forward a growth plan for DANAT that will boost its presence in the market for certification of pearls and gems.”Our focus is entirely on achieving a level of consumer confidence in the local and regional markets that may not be present now,” he told Jewellery Outlook in an interview.
DANAT’s priority will be to highlight the message that “Authenticity matters”, as consumers will have more confidence in goods that have a report showing that they have been certified by a respected lab group.
While DANAT is mainly serving the domestic and regional markets, it is open to business from around the world, including from key coloured gemstone and jewellery manufacturing centres such as India and Thailand, Scarratt said.
Customers benefit from DANAT’s partnership with Brinks Global Services for the secure transport of their jewellery items as well as the Institute’s private bonded warehouse licence, which guarantees the latest security measures and information technology are applied in the storage of gemstones and jewellery.
Built on the previous Pearl & Gem Testing Laboratory, which Scarratt helped establish in 1990, DANAT is a privately held entity that was established earlier this year and is a subsidiary of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain.
With the vision to become a preferred institute for natural pearl and gemstones third party verification services and scientific research, Scarratt has led a thorough selection process to hire highly qualified gemmologists, lab technicians and customer relations specialists, and has overseen hefty investment in state-of-the-art technology.
“With the new technologies, we have dramatically reduced turnaround times to almost unheard of levels,” he said.
“It is possible to leave a natural pearl necklace at the Institute at the beginning of the day and pick it up again at the end of the day with the report finished.”
