Rough and polished, natural and mined, priced sight by sight. The diamond desk follows the pipeline end to end — producer sales in Gaborone, tenders in Antwerp and Dubai, manufacturing in Surat, memo programs in New York — and publishes the prices the trade actually deals at.
De Beers-style supply discipline is back: allocations trimmed, prices defended. Polished has stabilized after two brutal years — the question is whether midstream margins recover before credit patience runs out.
With lab-grown 1ct goods under $750, natural sellers have stopped competing on price and started competing on account of provenance, rarity and resale. Watch the marketing budgets, not the price lists.
Origin platforms are no longer CSR decoration — G7 rules and retailer mandates are making sourcing paperwork a condition of sale. Compliant goods are starting to command a measurable premium.
De Beers' ten-times-a-year allocation sale, where approved buyers — sightholders — purchase rough in pre-assembled boxes at prices set by the producer. Refusing a box has consequences; so does needing one.
Carat, color, clarity, cut set the grade — but the trade increasingly prices a fifth C: certainty of origin. Two identical stones can part ways on price over a paper trail.
Miners set rough prices, retailers set polished prices, and the cutters and traders in between absorb the difference. When both ends tighten at once, Surat and Antwerp bleed first — the industry's recurring crisis.
Goods consigned to retailers on memorandum — sold before they're paid for. Memo keeps counters full and balance sheets fragile; its terms are one of the best barometers of trade confidence.
Second-quarter rough production reached 7.8M ct (H1 14.91M, +46%), led by Botswana +107% to 5.5M ct, but the average price fell 32% to $105/ct and the rough index 16%. Q2 revenue fell 44% to $665M. Full-year guidance holds at 21–26M ct with a Venetia pause in H2; Anglo American is progressing a sale, with a Gareth Penny consortium reported as front-runner.
Effective August 19 under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, the 50% duty covers six jewelry HTS codes including loose polished diamonds (7102.39.00), stacks on existing tariffs and overrides USMCA duty-free treatment, per the JVC. Rough diamonds are exempt — Canadian rough cut abroad enters under the cutting country's rate.
The 2026 Real Weddings study found 61% of engagement rings for couples married in 2025 carried lab-grown center stones. Lab-grown wholesale fell 14–15% y/y in Q1 2026; a premium 1ct retails $800–1,200. Analyst Sherry Smith argues the market is bifurcated — value versus luxury — rather than either/or.
The National Union of Mineworkers formally condemned De Beers' two-year Venetia halt — 1,134 mine employees plus 80 DBSSSA staff in Section 189A consultation — accusing the company of presenting a predetermined decision and proposing executive cost reviews, retraining and top-down cuts instead. Chief negotiator Masibulele Naki: workers are not disposable tools.
With the Northwest Territories mine closed since March, Q2 yielded 33,000 carats from remaining surface ore, down 97%. H1 output fell 51% to 1.1 million carats; final sales run through end-2026, completing Rio Tinto's exit from diamond mining after Argyle (2020) and Fort à la Corne (2023). Angola exploration continues.
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