New statistics released last week by Israel's Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai reveal that in the first nine months of the 2013, Israeli exports of polished diamonds increased by 8.7% year-on-year.
The figures show that the entire diamond industry experienced a boost: imports and exports, of rough diamonds and polished all increased during this period. Between January and September 2013, US$4.659 billion worth of polished diamonds were exported from Israel. This stands in contrast to the US$4.287 billion worth of polished stones that Israel exported between January and September 2012.
In the first, second and third quarters of 2013, Israel exported US$2.243 billion worth of rough diamonds, a 8.5% year-on-year increase on last year's US$2.068 billion. From January to September 2013, US$2.893 billion worth of rough diamonds were imported, an increase of 9.4% over last year's total, US$2.645 billion.
Only the import of polished diamonds was relatively unchanged year to year, dropping just 1.1% to US$3.057 billion worth, during the first nine months of the year. The United States accounted for 35% of Israel's polished exports with US$1.639 billion and Hon Kong took second place with 28%, or US$1.305 billion worth. Switzerland 9.6% or US$447 million and Belgium 7.6% or US$350 million. The rest of the world 19.8% or US$919 million.
