Kimberley Process Releases 2006 Statistical Data

The Kimberley Process has published statistical data on diamond production, exports and imports from 2006. This joins previously released data from 2004 and 2005.

According to the data, 175,538,127 carats were produced in 2006. The Russian Federation mined 22 percent of it, Botswana 20 percent, and Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 17 percent each.

Production by value totaled $11.975 billion. Botswana led in production by value (27%), followed by Russia (21%), Canada (12%) and South Africa (11%).

The EC was the largest importer of rough diamonds by volume, importing 40 percent of the 473,089,900 carats in goods in 2006. The second largest importer was India (36%), followed by the UAE (9%) and Israel (6%).

The declared value of imports was $35.159 billion, with the EC importing 39 percent of the goods by value, India 24 percent, Israel 16 percent and China 5 percent.

Oddly, the number of counted KP certificates on exports and imports differed. The exports count total came to 55,029 certificates, while the imports were 54,510, a difference of 519 certificates.

Click here for the 2006 figures in charts and here for the tables.