Russia's 8% rough duty slips to March and costs Alrosa $37.9 million
A government resolution published on 11 August moved the export duty from 1 September 2026 to 1 March 2027, so it now starts alongside the cluster decree that ends Russia's open rough market.
By The Diamonds Desk
What changed
Russia has postponed its 8% export duty on rough diamonds from 1 September 2026 to 1 March 2027, in a government resolution published on 11 August. The duty applies to rough and partially processed diamonds leaving the customs territory of the Eurasian Economic Union.
What it means
- Sanctions were supposed to be the thing that separated Russian rough from the world market, and the Russian state is now doing a version of it to itself, deliberately. The cluster decree keeps goods inside the country until domestic cutters have passed on them, and the duty makes exporting whatever is left 8% dearer.
- Read from Antwerp, Dubai or Surat, the practical question is not what Alrosa pays. It is what reaches the tender at all, and from 1 March 2027 the answer is whatever Russian cutters did not want.
- That is a change in the quality of what leaves, not only the quantity, and it lands in the same market that has just watched Finsch close for want of buyers at the small end.
Key figures
| export duty on rough leaving the EAEU | 8% |
|---|---|
| deferred from 1 September 2026 | 1 Mar 2027 |
| ₽3.12bn, estimated cost to Alrosa | $37.9m |
| of Russian output is Alrosa's | ~90% |
Source: Russia's rough duty
A six-month deferral, and why the new date
The new date is not arbitrary: it is the date the country's cluster decree takes effect, so the two measures now begin together as one programme rather than six months apart. Alrosa accounts for roughly 90% of Russia's domestic production and is the company the measure is built around.
The coverage of the duty is reported two different ways and this desk cannot resolve it, so both are printed. Rapaport and IDEX both describe it as applying to rough above 0.45 carats, including special-size goods weighing more than 10.8 carats.
TASS, reporting the resolution itself, describes it as applying to rough weighing between 0.45 and 10.8 carats as well as special sizes. The first reading is a floor with no ceiling. The second is a band.
The difference decides whether the largest Russian rough is taxed or exempt, which is not a detail, and it is disclosed here rather than smoothed into whichever version reads more cleanly.
Two readings of the same duty · what it covers
Source: Russia's rough duty
What the duty covers, on two readings
The duty is the smaller change and the cluster decree is the larger. Russia is replacing its open rough sales model with a regulated cluster in which miners, meaning Alrosa, must first offer rough and partially processed goods to cutters inside the cluster before selling them anywhere else.
That is a right of first refusal written into law over the entire book of the world's largest rough producer. The open market it replaces is the system of direct negotiation and sight-like arrangements through which international traders have bought Russian goods for decades. A tax changes a price.
A first-refusal obligation changes who sees the goods at all.
| Figure | |
|---|---|
| Rapaport / Idex · Floor, No Ceiling | above 0.45 ct, incl. specials over 10.8 ct |
| Tass · A Band | between 0.45 and 10.8 ct, plus specials |
Two outside sources describe the coverage differently and this desk cannot resolve which is right, so both are printed. The difference decides whether the largest Russian rough is taxed or exempt. The threshold at 0.45 carats is common to both readings and is the only part not in dispute. Carat Capital graphics desk.
The bigger change is not the tax
The cost figure attached to the duty is 3.12 billion roubles, about $37.9 million, against Alrosa's profit, reported by Rapaport on 11 August.
That estimate needs its date carried with it: it was published while the duty was still due to start on 1 September 2026, so it describes an annualised profit impact rather than a bill falling in this financial year, and the deferral pushes the first payment out by six months.
This paper reported Alrosa's first-half loss on 6 August and does not restate it here. The duty and the cluster are the new facts; the loss is not.
The story so far
Go deeper
Method
Two outside sources describe the coverage differently and this desk cannot resolve which is right, so both are printed. The difference decides whether the largest Russian rough is taxed or exempt. The threshold at 0.45 carats is common to both readings and is the only part not in dispute.
Sources
- Russian government postpones diamond export duty to March 1, 2027 (11 August 2026) - TASS
- Russia Curbs Open Rough Market, Introduces 8% Export Duty on Diamonds (18 August 2026) - IDEX Online
- Alrosa Skids to Loss as Weak Diamond Demand Persists (11 August 2026) - Rapaport
- Alrosa books a $134 million loss and starts idling the pits - Carat Capital (6 August 2026)