India records export figures close to Rs 1,309.83 crore, which is an 80% rise over last years Rs 728.10 crore in the April-September period. One of the many reasons for the rise is the processing industry across the country which has inculcated a professional tactic of not stalking run-of-the-mine stones. "These stalks, which cannot be processed in our country, are generally pushed into countries that have the technology, like Israel and Belgium. This way the processing factories make room for fresh stalk of rough diamonds," says Bakul Mehta, Chairman, Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). Mehta estimates a 4-6% rise in the Christmas sales of processed diamonds this year to U.S. alone. "The U.S. accounts for 35 % of the Christmas sales,” he says. “We now have enough time to identify virgin markets in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries like Belaraus, Kazakhistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan and certain European nations like Poland and Hungary where we estimate a large number of people with disposable incomes,” adds Mehta.

“The increase in exports of rough diamonds is a boon for the Surat diamond industry as by the end of October we were able to meet the requisite processed diamond orders so that it appears in the form of jewelry a month prior to Christmas in the U.S.,” says Chandrakant Sanghvi, regional convener of GJEPC. Sanghvi states that the GJEPC recorded an overall dip of Rs 103.45 crore worth of cut and polished diamonds exports in the world, one of the reasons being the steady increase of gold prices this year. “Our industry is fairly doing well this Christmas season. What we are concerned right now is about the inflow of the rough diamonds in volumes, which is essential for our industry,” Sanghvi clarifies.%%Mehta also points out to the formation of the World Diamond Federation (WDF) certification that would help standardize diamond prices across the world and increase the diamond jewelry market manifold. Diamonds as such are a democratized commodity and not restricted to a fixed class of buyers. "Surat has played a major role as they have been producing small sized diamonds that can be afforded by the middleclass across the world," Mehta said.%%Mehta has also proposed the setting up of a new company with approval of the Ministry of Commerce, to provide direct and easy access to the mining countries for supplying rough diamonds to Indian exporters. This, he said, will enable them to remit their sale proceeds as well as return the unsold goods, through a system that fulfils all the requirements of the Kimberly Process Certification scheme.