Rise in Polished Diamond Imports to Japan in March

Japanese imports of polished diamonds rose a whopping 117 percent in March to $107.845 million. In value, nearly half of all goods, 45.9 percent, were shipped from India, while imports from Russia displayed the biggest leap – well over 1,000 percent.

India is by far the leading source of polished diamonds to the Japanese market. Indian diamond dealers exported nearly 180,000carats of polished diamonds in March, up 3.4 percent, supplying 69.5 percent of total Japanese imports during the month.

A more interesting figure is imports from Russia. While still on a small scale – 420,000 carats at $1.096 million – this is, nonetheless, a 1,200 percent leap in value and 1,091 percent in caratage.

Belgium and Israel are the second and third largest sources of polished to Japan - $23.522 million and $11.445 million, respectively. However, Israeli exporters cannot be happy with their third place position. Exports from the center to Japan decreased 22.2 percent in value and 30 percent by weight.

While Japanese imports in weight terms fell by four percent during the January-March period, imports increased in value 2.5 percent.