Israeli Polished Diamond Exports Up 6 Percent

The average price of the exports rose 14 percent to $2,661.97 per carat.

Israel exported $3.55 billion of polished diamonds, which is a 6-percent rise on the year before, in the first half of 2014, according to data published by the Ministry of Economy, Diamonds.net reported.

By volume, polished exports fell 7 percent to 1.335 million carats.

Israel’s polished imports grew 3 percent to $2.153 billion during the half year. The country’s net polished exports, representing the excess of exports over imports, increased 11 percent to $1.399 billion.

Israel’s rough diamond imports rose 1 percent to $2.053 billion although the volume of the imports fell 6 percent to 5.206 million carats. Rough exports increased 6 percent to $1.752 billion and net rough imports, representing imports minus exports, dropped 22 percent to $302 million.

Israel net diamond account, which represents total exports of polished and rough minus total exports, rose 25 percent to $1.097 billion during the first six months of 2014.