Israel’s polished diamond exports totaled $4.675 billion in 2016, compared to $4.993 billion in 2015 – a decline of 6.4%. Rough exports jumped to $2.702 billion, a 23.1% spike from 2015. Polished imports totaled $3.282 billion in 2016, – down 5.7% from $3.482 billion in 2015. Rough imports totaled $3.246 billion, up 16.7% from $2.781 billion in 2015.
Shmuel Mordechai, Israel’s diamond controller, commented that the downward trend continued for most of 2016, but the first signs of recovery appeared towards the last quarter of the year – mainly due to the growing stability of the market and the industry’s agreement with the Israel Tax Authority in December.
The US remained Israel’s largest trading partner (39% of the market): diamond exports to the US totaled $1.827 billion; diamond exports to Hong Kong totaled $1.239 billion (26% of the market); diamond exports to Belgium totaled $ 0.349 billion (8% of the market); diamond exports to Switzerland totaled $ 0.311 billion (7% of the market); diamond exports to England totaled $0.169 billion (4% of the market); and exports to other countries totaled $0.780 billion (16% of the market).
