With the global economic crisis, which trapped Europe and the United States, only the Russian and Asian markets are giving confidence in the future of the global diamond industry, which once used to drive its annual trade turnover to $ 25 billion, whereas it was less than half of that figure in 2012.
This decline in financial performance cannot leave industry participants undisturbed.
"Not so long ago, one of the two polished diamonds sold in the U.S. came from Israel. In 2011, Israel imported $ 4.4 billion worth of rough diamonds, but only one third of that number of stones were processed at the local level, while the rest were cut abroad," said Bumi Traub, President of the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association, cited by the France-Israel Chamber of Commerce website.
Diamond cutting and diamond trading, the businesses which are symbolic to Israel, are currently under the threat of extinction. Over the last ten years, India and China were able to train their own specialists in diamond cutting and diamond polishing. And because their wages are the lowest in the industry worldwide, it is these countries that are swarmed by diamond brokers and traders, who go there to cut rough diamonds purchased in Africa, Canada or Russia.
The result is that today Israel accounts for only 2 000 employees engaged in diamond cutting and working mainly in the diamond towers of Ramat Gan against 20 000 workers in that sector in the 1980s. Considering the aging and retirement of skilled labor, the shortage is felt ever more acutely.
Yair Sahar, President of the Israel Diamond Exchange appears less pessimistic in his view on this situation than Bumi Traub and offers his own way to overcome the crisis.
"It is necessary to preserve the image of Israel as the country producing polished diamonds. Without delay, we must invest in education and training of a new generation of workers for the diamond industry. For the next five years, the government has just allocated a budget of $ 200 million to encourage Orthodox Jews to come to the labor market. We must turn to these people, offering them appropriate training, pay and working conditions adapted to their way of life," Yair Sahar said.
Commenting on this proposal, Shmuel Mordechai, who oversees the work of diamantaires at the Israel Ministry of Labor, said he was "happy to finally see that diamantaires started to solve current problems."
"The solution is in establishing small training units able to prepare workers and employ 30-40 people," Mordecai said. According to him, to establish each such unit will cost no more than one or two million dollars.
This "drop" in the sea of the state budget will help stimulate interest towards traditional professions in the diamond industry of Israel.
Alex Shishlo, Editor in Chief of the European Bureau, Rough&Polished
