The half-carat is priced like 1999, says Kiran Gems
Senil Lakhani, president of Kiran Gems USA, says stones from 0.30 to 0.70 carats are selling at 1990s and early-2000s prices, in the $1,000 to $5,000 band that carries the American counter.
By The Diamonds Desk
What changed
The claim was made on a trade panel rather than in a release, and it is the sharpest thing said about polished prices this week.
What it means
- The interesting number in this market is no longer the monthly percentage, it is the level, and almost nobody is publishing the level. A retailer reading that small goods rose 1.6% in July will restock differently from one who also knows those goods are priced where they were a quarter of a century ago, and the second reader is being told something about margin, not about momentum.
- The practical instruction is to price the case rather than the index: if the American counter's core stone genuinely sits at 1990s money, the recovery worth waiting for is in what the customer will pay, not in what the dealer quotes. Watch whether a second manufacturer of Kiran's size says the same thing on the record.
- One is a characterisation; two would be a market.
Key figures
| the sizes Lakhani calls America's core | 0.30–0.70ct |
|---|---|
| where he places the money | $1,000–$5,000 |
| 0.30ct goods, July, RapNet | +1.6% |
| 0.50ct goods, July, RapNet | +1.8% |
Source: The bread-and-butter stone
A manufacturer prices the shelf
Senil Lakhani, president of Kiran Gems USA, told Rapaport's Heard on the Street that diamonds below one carat and up to 1.5 carats are less expensive than ever before and are selling at prices from the 1990s and early 2000s.
He put the range that matters at 0.30, 0.40, 0.50 and 0.70 carats, calling those sizes "the bread and butter for America," and placed the money at $1,000, $2,000 and $5,000 rather than the half-million and million-dollar stones that get photographed. The episode was published on 12 August.
Kiran Gems is one of the largest diamond manufacturers in the world, so this is the cutting floor talking about the shelf.
This paper has been reporting the same goods from the other end all month, and the two accounts fit together only if you separate level from direction.
The RapNet index had 0.30-carat goods up 1.6% and 0.50-carat goods up 1.8% in July against a flat one-carat, published here on 4 August, and yesterday's colour split had K to M goods averaging 1.7% against 0.1% for better colours. Those are monthly moves.
Lakhani is describing where the price sits, not which way it went, and a 1.6% month on a price that has fallen back to a 1999 level is a very small repair on a very long decline.
The bread-and-butter stone is priced where it sat in 1999 and is rising at under two per cent a month, and both halves of that sentence have to be read together or the trade will mistake a floor for a recovery.
July 2026 moves on the goods in question · per cent for the month
Source: The bread-and-butter stone
Level and direction are not the same fact
The same panel produced the answer to a question this paper has circled for weeks, which is whether traceable origin is actually available or merely announced.
Jeff Angel, head buyer at RDI Diamonds, said he can find a diamond of traceable Botswana origin in about five minutes, and that he recently filled a million-dollar order in which every stone had to come from Botswana. That is a different picture from the one the compliance conversation paints.
Origin is not a shortage at the buying desk for anyone who asks for it; it is a search that a professional buyer already knows how to run.
What has not arrived is the part where a retailer can put that fact in front of a customer without building the story themselves, and the panel spent its time on exactly that gap.
| Figure | |
|---|---|
| 0.50-Carat | +1.8% |
| K To M Colours, 1Ct | +1.7% |
| 0.30-Carat | +1.6% |
| 1-Carat Index | flat |
RapNet monthly moves published by Rapaport and reported by this paper on 4 and 12 August. These are directions for one month; the 1990s price level described on the panel is a level, and no index this desk can reach publishes that comparison. Carat Capital graphics desk.
Origin, in five minutes
The limits of all this should be stated plainly, because a panel is not a data series. No index this desk can reach publishes a 1999 comparison for 0.30 to 0.70-carat goods, so the level claim cannot be checked against a price history the way a monthly move can.
What can be checked is the direction, and the direction agrees with him. The claim also comes from a manufacturer, which is the part of the chain with the least to gain from suggesting polished is cheap, and that cuts in favour of taking it seriously rather than against it.
This desk is reporting it as a named executive's characterisation of his own market, not as a price, and is not putting a figure on 1999 that it cannot source.
The story so far
Go deeper
Method
RapNet monthly moves published by Rapaport and reported by this paper on 4 and 12 August. These are directions for one month; the 1990s price level described on the panel is a level, and no index this desk can reach publishes that comparison.
Sources
- Rapaport's Heard on the Street Delves into Diamond Origin and Branding — Rapaport (12 August 2026)
- The 1-carat stops falling: polished's best month since the tariffs — Carat Capital (4 August 2026)
- 1.7% in the cheap colours: what July's flat month hid — Carat Capital (12 August 2026)
- Thirty-pointers run while the one-carat stalls — Carat Capital (27 July 2026)