Mmetla Masire: Okavango to resume diamond sales in January

Botswana’s state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) is set to resume diamond sales in January 2025, whether the market remains depressed or not. ODC managing director Mmetla Masire told Rough & Polished’s Mathew Nyaungwa on the side-lines of...

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Helga Pombal: Angola's Stardiam finds solution to the threat posed by lab-grown diamonds

Stardiam manager of production Helga Pombal told Rough&Polished's Mathew Nyaungwa on the sidelines of the Angola International Diamond Conference that lab-grown diamonds are creating a parallel market for more accessible stones, combined with lower...

11 november 2024

Ellah Muchemwa: ADPA to launch Africa's first diamond mining standard next year

The African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), which is based in Luanda, Angola, and represents the interests of mainly African diamond producers and those with the potential to produce diamonds, will next year launch the Sustainable Development...

04 november 2024

Dmitry Fedorov: I want our jewelry to be displayed at a museum in the future

Dmitry Fedorov is the founder of the eponymous jewelry house. His main focus is the creation of Orthodox-inspired premium luxury jewelry of high artistic merit. He told Rough&Polished about his journey in the jewelry industry, about choosing the ‘Orthodox...

28 october 2024

Responsible business practices ‘no longer optional’, says WDC President Feriel Zerouki

The president of the World Diamond Council takes time out of her busy schedule to tell Rough&Polished readers about the critical work of the WDC. Zerouki, the first female present of the body, which includes all the important industry organizations among...

14 october 2024

Yoram Dvash to PM: Israel Diamond Industry on verge of collapse

16 july 2020
Yoram Dvash, the President of the Israel Diamond Exchange, has written a letter to the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning him that the diamond industry in Israel is on the verge of collapse in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.
The letter reportedly states that the steps taken by the government so far haven’t yet reached diamond industry workers and there is a real danger that one of Israel’s oldest and most important export industries will simply disappear. The letter emphasized the slow rate of the implementation of the measures, as well as a lack of credit.
According to the letter… decline in Israel’s exports between March and May is estimated at over 80%. Internal trading fell by 90% and was effectively erased. It is estimated that the cumulative damage to the country’s diamond industry exceeds NIS 2 billion. The diamond industry is a major industry for Israeli exports and is an employment center for thousands of people from all parts of society.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished