The diamond industry of Israel is an important world player in producing cut diamonds for wholesale. In 2010, Israel became the chair of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. [1] As of 2016 [update] , cut diamonds constituted 23.2% of Israel's total exports and they were the country's biggest export product, amounting to 12% of the world's production. [2] [3] [ needs update ]
What was to become the Israeli diamond industry began in 1937, eleven years before the State of Israel was established, when the first diamond polishing plant was opened in Petah Tikva by Asher Anshel Daskal and Zvi Rosenberg, two experts diamantaires from Romania that immigrated from Belgium. [4] In 1938 the 15% import duty on imported rough stones was removed. By 1944 the industry employed 3,300 workers in 33 factories, with £P 1,320,000 capital investment, entirely Jewish. The value of exports was over £P 3,200,000 mainly to the United States, Canada, and India; it was the largest value of any single commodity exported from Mandatory Palestine that year. [5]
Between 1944 and 1948 the industry suffered from the increasing lawlessness and in February 1948 closed down completely. [6]
After a state was declared, the consumer economy was shifted to a war economy. This came at the height of a diamond crisis, as many war-torn economies were struggling to re-establish.[ citation needed ]
During the first fifteen years of Israel's existence, diamonds and Jaffa oranges were the new state's main export products. [7]
After reaching its lowest point in the wake of the 1948 closedown,[ dubious – discuss ] the industry has continued to grow, producing a world leader in the diamond industry.[ citation needed ]
In the beginning of the 21st century, Israel is one of the world's three major centers for polished diamonds, alongside Belgium and India. Israel's net polished diamond exports slid 22.8% in 2012 as polished diamond exports fell to $5.56 billion from $7.2 billion in 2011. Net exports of rough diamonds dropped 20.1% to $2.8 billion and net exports of polished diamonds slipped 24.9 percent to $4.3 billion, while net rough diamond imports dropped 12.9 percent to $3.8 billion. The United States is the largest market accounting for 36% of overall export market for polished diamonds while Hong Kong remains at second with 28 percent and Belgium at 8% coming in third. [8] [9] [10] [11]
In 2007, when diamonds still constituted almost 24% of Israel's total exports, [12] 12% of world diamonds (by their value) were polished in the country. [13] In 2010 this number decreased to 9%. [14] As of 2016 [update] , diamonds amounted to 28% of Israel's total exports and they were still 12% of the world's production. [2] [3]
The industry is located in the "Diamond District", located in Ramat Gan in the Tel Aviv District. The complex is made up of four buildings, interconnected with walkways. The entire trading operation takes place in this complex. [15] The Diamond Tower in the district contains the world's largest diamond trading floor.
Israel's government funds a non-profit industry body, the Israel Diamond Institute, to represent organisations and institutions involved in Israel's diamond industry.
The Israeli diamond industry guarantees all diamonds are 100% naturally made and participates in the Kimberley Process, a certification scheme whose goal is to ensure no blood diamonds enter the marketplace. [15]
Some human rights campaigners, however, say the Kimberley Process defines conflict diamonds too narrowly, only relating to uncut stones, enabling Israel's diamond-cutting industry to avoid attention. [16] The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, among others, has called for diamonds processed in Israel to be considered conflict diamonds. [17] [18] [19]
The Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) Group of Companies is a non-profit, public interest company that represents all organizations and institutions involved in Israel's diamond industry. [20] The main functions of the Institute are marketing and business development, promotion of rough diamond trading, professional training, security consultancy, technological research and development and trade shows. [21]
The economy of Israel is a highly developed free-market economy. The prosperity of Israel's advanced economy allows the country to have a sophisticated welfare state, a powerful modern military said to possess a nuclear-weapons capability with a full nuclear triad, modern infrastructure rivaling many Western countries, and a high-technology sector competitively on par with Silicon Valley. It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States, and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. American companies, such as Intel, Microsoft, and Apple, built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel. More than 400 high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centers throughout the country. As of 2024, the IMF estimated Israel has the 26th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, and one of the biggest economies in the Middle East.
The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial and coastal mining. It operates in 35 countries with mining taking place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Canada. It also has an artisanal mining business, Gemfair, which operates in Sierra Leone.
The economy of Mozambique is $14.396 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, and has developed since the end of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992). In 1987, the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms, which were designed to stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation was brought to single digits during the late 1990s, although it returned to double digits in 2000–02. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.
Blood diamonds are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the 20th–21st century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau have been given the label. The term conflict resource refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Blood diamonds can also be smuggled by organized crime syndicates so that they could be sold on the black market.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is the process established in 2003 to prevent "conflict diamonds" from entering the mainstream rough diamond market by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 55/56 following recommendations in the Fowler Report. The process was set up "to ensure that diamond purchases were not financing violence by rebel movements and their allies seeking to undermine legitimate governments".
The Jaffa orange also known as Shamouti orange, is an orange variety with few seeds and a tough skin that makes it particularly suitable for export.
Global Witness is an international NGO established on November 15 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. The organisation has offices in London and Washington, D.C.
The Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA), signed by United States President George W. Bush on 25 April 2003, implemented the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) to regulate the commercial sale of diamonds. On July 29, 2003, Bush signed Executive Order 13312, which described the implementation of the Clean Diamond Trade act. The act requires that all diamonds imported to the United States or exported from the United States have a Kimberley Process Certificate. The act aims to prohibit the importation of diamonds whose mining fuels conflict in the country of origin.
Lazare Kaplan International Inc. (LKI) is a diamond manufacturing and distribution company based in New York City. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Maurice Tempelsman. The first LKI was located in Ponce, Puerto Rico, at el Barrio de los Diamantes, a community named after the factory was located there. LKI was founded in 1903 where it operated until it was moved to Caguas, Puerto Rico in the 1970s.
The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939.
The second-largest mineral industry in the world is the mineral industry of Africa, which implies large quantities of resources due to Africa being the second largest continent, with 30.37 million square kilometres of land.With a population of 1.4 billion living there, mineral exploration and production constitute significant parts of their economies for many African countries and remain keys to economic growth. Africa is richly endowed with mineral reserves and ranks first in quantity of world reserves for bauxite, cobalt, industrial diamond, phosphate rock, platinum-group metals (PGM), vermiculite, and zirconium.
The Marange diamond fields are an area of widespread small-scale diamond production in Chiadzwa, Mutare District, Zimbabwe. 'Although estimates of the reserves contained in this area vary wildly, some have suggested that it could be home to one of the world's richest diamond deposits'. The hugely prolific fields are regarded by some experts as the world's biggest diamond find in more than a century. Production from Marange is controversial due to ongoing legal wrangles and government crackdowns on illegal miners and allegations of forced labour. In terms of carats produced, the Marange field is the largest diamond-producing project in the world, estimated to have produced 16.9 million carats in 2013, or 13% of global rough diamond supply. Marange is estimated to have produced 12 million carats in 2012, 8.7 million carats in 2011, and 8.2 million carats in 2010. While some diamond mines produce rough valued at over $1000 per carat, average production at Marange is estimated at under $50 per carat.
The Central African Republic's mineral resource endowment includes copper, diamond, gold, graphite, ilmenite, iron ore, kaolin, kyanite, lignite, limestone, manganese, monazite, quartz, rutile, salt, tin, and uranium. Of these commodities, only diamond and gold were produced in 2006 - subsistence farming was the mainstay of the economy.
Israel Diamond Exchange Ltd., located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel, is the world's largest diamond exchange and the centre of Israel's diamond industry. The exchange is a private company that incorporates about 3100 members; these diamantaires are engaged in diamond cutting and trading - marketing, brokerage, import and export.
The mining industry of Sierra Leone accounted for 4.5 percent of the country's GDP in 2007 and minerals made up 79 percent of total export revenue with diamonds accounting for 46 percent of export revenue in 2008. The main minerals mined in Sierra Leone are diamonds, rutile, bauxite, gold, iron and limonite.
Antwerp's diamond district, also known as the Diamond Quarter (Diamantkwartier), and dubbed the Square Mile, is an area within the city of Antwerp, Belgium. It consists of several square blocks covering an area of about one square mile. While as of 2012, much of the gem cutting and polishing work historically done in the neighborhood had moved to low wage centers elsewhere, about 84% of the world's rough diamonds passed through the district, making it the largest diamond district in the world with a turnover of 54 billion dollars. Each year, approximately 50% of the rough diamonds return to Antwerp for cutting and polishing.
Foreign trade in India includes all imports and exports to and from India. At the level of the Central Government, trade is administered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Foreign trade accounted for 48.8% of India's GDP in 2018.
Moshe Schnitzer was a Romanian Jewish immigrant to Israel who became a key player in the international diamond trade. From 1967 to 1993 he was President of the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE), which became the world's largest diamond exchange.
The Arab League boycott of Israel is a strategy adopted by the Arab League and its member states to boycott economic and other relations between Arabs and the Arab states and Israel and specifically stopping all trade with Israel which adds to that country's economic and military strength. A secondary boycott was later imposed, to boycott non-Israeli companies that do business with Israel, and later a tertiary boycott involved the blacklisting of firms that do business with other companies that do business with Israel. An official organized boycott of the Yishuv was adopted by the Arab League in December 1945, and persisted against Israel after its establishment in 1948. The boycott was designed to weaken Jewish industry in Palestine and to deter Jewish immigration to the region.
Tanzania is a land rich in minerals. Mining makes up more than 50% of the country's total exports, of which a large part comes from gold. The country has gold reserves of 10 million ounces, generating revenue of over a billion USD. Diamonds are also found in significant amounts. Since it was opened in 1940, the Williamson diamond mine has produced 19 million carats (3,800 kg) of diamonds. Gemstones, nickel, copper, uranium, kaolin, titanium, cobalt and platinum are also mined in Tanzania. Illegal mining and corruption are ongoing problems. In 2017, the government passed a series of bills aimed at increasing revenue from minerals after a scandal which caused the dismissal of the Minister for Energy and Minerals.