A leading Indian diamond association has expressed confidence that exports of polished diamonds will pick up pace in coming days due to rising demand in the US ahead of the holiday season.
Jagdishbhai Khunt, the President of Surat Diamond Association, told Sputnik India that the “voluntary freeze” on the import of rough diamonds, which kicked in October, would end on 15 December.
“We already anticipated that a pause in import of rough diamonds would improve the market dynamics and help in revive the industry,” Khunt said.
He also revealed that the “Diwali vacation” had ended and around 50 percent of the diamond workshops in Surat were operating as usual.
“We expect the business to pick up in coming days and months,” he forecast.
The comments come after the Indian commerce ministry-linked Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) called a meeting on Tuesday to review the market situation in view of the ending of the two-month voluntary freeze on diamond imports.
On Wednesday, a statement from Rapaport, which tracks the diamond industry trends, said that diamond markets had somewhat stabilised in November due to the “holiday shopping season” and the “lower rough supply reduced midstream inventories”.
It said that the prices had witnessed an increase across all major categories for the first time this year.
Around 90 percent of the rough diamonds in the world are polished in Surat before being exported to other nations. Nearly 50 percent of the polished diamonds were exported to the US in 2021, according to official figures.
While Russian diamond mining company Alrosa has traditionally remained a dominant supplier of rough diamonds to the Surat industry, Indian exporters have complained about growing restrictions on export of Russian-origin diamonds to western markets since last year.
Not only has US President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order (EO) banning the import of Russian diamonds, the G7 nations are also considering to ban Russian diamonds as part of the upcoming round of sanctions against Moscow.
Trends in Indian Diamond Industry
Khunt said that it had become increasingly difficult to find Russian-origin diamonds in Surat in recent months.
The diamond trader stated that some of the Russian-origin diamonds which had been left in the inventory had to be exported to Lebanon, which is another trading hub.
He said that Indian traders were increasingly importing rough diamonds from nations such as Zimbabwe and Canada due to their acceptability in American and European markets, which has been a major market for Indian exporters.