Japan saw a boost in the value of its polished diamond imports in March 2012 over the same month last year. The value of the polished diamond imports increased 21 percent to $73.5 million in March, ‎but dropped by 3 percent in volume ‎to 147,024 carats. The average price of the polished diamond imports rose 24 percent to $500 per ‎carat.

The rise in imports from India was a whooping 52 percent y-o-y to $40.9 million, from Belgium it was up 4.4 percent to $10.8 million. Imports from Israel escalated by 60 percent to 4.9 million and from Thailand the said imports rose 12 percent to 3.9 million.

The country’s polished diamond imports in the first quarter were up 18 percent to ‎‎$216.2 million in value and interestingly the volume of the said imports dipped also by 18 percent to 469,082 carats.