Moti Ganz, Chairman of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) opined that “In the last quarter of 2011, the global demand for rough diamonds will run at about $1.2 billion less than the $4.6 billion sold in each of the first three quarters.” He also noted that emerging markets like India and China are helping offset the reduced demand for ‘cheaper and small diamonds in the U.S. market’, but the demand from these emerging markets is for ‘bigger and higher quality goods.’

Such a scenario of changing consumption pattern, “requires a shifting of manufacturing focus in the cutting centers, which partly explains the unease in the rough markets in which certain (cheap) goods cannot find buyers even at two-digit marker discounts, while goods which are in demand are hard to find,” he added.

But there is positive outlook as well which is balancing this unease according to Ganz, who said that the industry’s recovery is continuing. “Even with the current ‘technical correction’ in the rough supply make-up, the manufacturers will process some $16.9 billion rough this year, a 27 percent growth over the $13.3 billion of 2010.” he added. Quoting a research by PharosBeam and Tacy, ‘expressed in polished wholesale prices, the diamonds available to the jewelry sector will grow by some 5.3 percent from $18.9 billion to $21.9 billion this year,” he said.

Ganz lauded the decision by the DTC, the marketing arm of De Beers, to limit the next sight allocation to $300 million, from the previous sight of $440 million, as a move which would ‘help to calm the market, which has recently seen vacillating prices in light of changing consumption patterns’.