In 2022, Russia for the first time produced more than a third of all natural diamonds in the world, and together with African countries occupies almost 90% of the world market, while the United Arab Emirates and Europe became the leaders in terms of exports of this raw material, Sputnik calculated based on data from the Kimberley Process, created to combat "blood diamonds".
Thus, according to data for last year, the volume of diamond production in the world amounted to 119.96 million carats, 41.9 million of which were produced in Russia – a record 35% of the market. Before that, since 2004, Russia occupied only from 22% to 33% of the global diamond production per year.
Another 61.6 million carats were mined in Africa. The largest producers of diamonds on the continent were Botswana (24.5 million carats), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (9.9 million carats) and South Africa (9.7 million carats). In addition to Africa, Canada (16.3 million carats) and Brazil (158,000 carats) were the leaders in terms of production volumes in the Kimberley Process.
At the same time, the main exporters of rough diamonds turned out to be not those countries that produce them. The UAE sold the most diamonds in 2022 – 89.4 million carats (27% of world exports), and the European Union – 75.2 million carats (22.7%), which did not produce this mineral at all last year.
Russia (36.7 million carats), Botswana (27.1 million carats), non-diamond producing India (26.1 million carats), Canada (16.3 million carats), DR Congo (11.6 million carats) and South Africa (10.8 million carats) were also in the top list in terms of supply of these gems to the world market.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, reported in October that the preparation of the 12th package of EU sanctions against Russia is now underway, which should include a ban on the import of Russian diamonds after agreeing on the appropriate sanctions' mechanism with the G7 countries. Earlier in October, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stated that the EU and the G7 were "close" to creating a system that would allow sanctions against the Russian diamonds.
Earlier, the media reported that the G7 countries, along with the EU, intend to announce sanctions against Russian diamonds and diamonds in the near future. It is expected that the sanctions can start working from January 1, 2024. At the same time, the world's largest representatives of the diamond market did not approve the mechanism of restrictions during a recent private presentation of the planned measures in the United States.