Russia Controls One-Third of Global Diamond Production

At the end of 2022, Russia, for the first time, accounted for over a third of the world's natural diamond production, joining African nations to dominate almost 90% of the global market.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates and Europe have emerged as leading exporters.

The calculations, based on data from the Kimberley Process established to combat "blood diamonds," revealed that in the previous year, global diamond production reached 119.96 million carats, with Russia contributing a record-breaking 41.9 million carats, representing 35% of the market.

This is a significant increase from previous years when Russia accounted for only 22% to 33% of global diamond production annually since 2004.

Other African countries extracted 61.6 million carats, with Botswana being the largest producer at 24.5 million carats, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo at 9.9 million carats and South Africa at 9.7 million carats.

Additionally, Canada at 16.3 million carats, and Brazil at 158 thousand carats were leading producers outside of Africa, according to Kimberley Process data.

Simultaneously, it has become apparent that major diamond exporters are not the same as diamond-producing countries.

The United Arab Emirates sold the largest number of diamonds in 2022, totaling 89.4 million carats (27% of global exports), followed by the European Union with 75.2 million carats (22.7%), despite not extracting diamonds at all.

Russia was among the top suppliers of these precious stones to the global market, accounting for 36.7 million carats (11.1%).

Other key suppliers included Botswana (27.1 million carats) and India, which doesn't produce its own diamonds (26.1 million carats). 

Canada (16.3 million carats), the Congo (11.6 million carats), and South Africa (10.8 million carats) also played significant roles in supplying diamonds.

In October, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, announced preparations for the EU's twelfth package of sanctions against Russia, which is expected to include a ban on importing Russian diamonds after an agreement on corresponding sanctions with the EU.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also stated in October that the EU and the Group of Seven (G7) are "close" to establishing a mechanism to impose sanctions on Russian diamonds.

Earlier, it was reported that the G7 countries, followed by the European Union, plan to announce sanctions on both raw and polished Russian diamonds soon.

The sanctions are expected to take effect from January 1, 2024. At the same time, the world's leading diamond market representatives did not agree on the restriction mechanism during a recent special presentation in the United States.