In Surat, Indian’s diamond manufacturing and trading hub, workers are being deployed for only three days a week of late due to a shortage of rough diamonds. Diamond exporters have reduced purchases of rough diamonds owing to high prices, thereby reducing the need for workers for cutting and polishing of diamonds, as per a report in Economic Times.
Due to the outbreak of Omicron in diamond mining regions of South Africa and Botswana, rough diamond prices are up by about 20% since July.
“Since rough diamond prices have gone up, the cutting and polishing units are not replenishing the stock. This is why the work is less at the units,” Diamond Workers Union vice president Bhavesh Tank reportedly told ET. “The workers are not being called every day. Some units have cut down work on Saturdays too. Every day workers are coming to us and complaining about this.”
Dinesh Navadiya, the regional chairman (Gujarat), GJEPC, said: “The units are working on a need-based pattern now as rough prices have gone up. They are very cautious now so that their profitability does not take a hit. The industry had gone through a very bad time in the pre-pandemic period.”
Workers in Surat cut and polish more than 85% of the diamonds available in the world. The diamond city has 6,000 polishing units, which employ nearly 700,000 people and clock an annual turnover of about Rs 1.45 trillion.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
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