India was the world’s largest importer of diamonds in 2022, buying US$27.3 billion worth, or 21.6% of all diamonds traded internationally that year, according to World’s Top Exports. Its largest supplier was the United Arab Emirates, at US$9.9 billion. The imports feed India’s diamond cutting and polishing industry. The figures below are for 2022, with changes from 2021, and were current when this post was written in November 2023.
The data covers heading 71.02 of the Harmonized System: diamonds, whether or not worked, but not mounted or set. Laboratory-grown diamonds are synthetic stones and fall under heading 71.04 (subheadings 7104.21 and 7104.91 in HS 2022), so they are not counted here. For how headings and their legal texts decide questions like this, see the legal anatomy of HS classification.
Global diamond imports in 2022
Importing countries bought diamonds worth US$126.1 billion in 2022. That was 3.6% below the $130.8 billion of 2018, but 5.1% above the $120 billion spent in 2021.
Five buyers (India, the United States, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium) accounted for 73.6% of all internationally traded diamonds in 2022. By continent, Asian countries spent the most, $77.7 billion or 61.8% of the global total. North American importers followed with 19.3% and European countries with 15.7%. African countries took 2.7%, Oceania (led by Australia and New Zealand) 0.4%, and Latin America (excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean) 0.2%.
Diamond import distribution worldwide 2022
| Importer (2022) | Value | Share of world imports |
|---|---|---|
| India | US$27.3 billion | 21.6% |
| United States | $23.7 billion | 18.8% |
| Hong Kong | $15.7 billion | 12.5% |
| United Arab Emirates | $13.3 billion | 10.5% |
| Belgium | $12.8 billion | 10.2% |
Among the top 15 importing countries, the fastest-growing markets since 2021 were France (up 65.2%), Singapore (up 42.9%), Thailand (up 34.2%) and Switzerland (up 33.7%). Imports fell in Botswana (down 25.1%), mainland China (down 14.3%), the United Arab Emirates (down 9.8%) and Israel (down 4.3%).
Where India’s diamond imports come from
India bought diamonds from a wide range of suppliers in 2022, and the value from each changed a good deal from 2021. The UAE led with US$9.9 billion, up 13.5%. Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand and Russia were India’s fastest-growing suppliers, while supplies from Hong Kong, Japan, Angola and Botswana fell. Overall, the value of India’s diamond imports rose 3.9% from $26.3 billion in 2021.
| Supplier to India | Value in 2022 | Change from 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | US$9.9 billion | up 13.5% |
| United States | $5.6 billion | up 2.9% |
| Belgium | $5.2 billion | down 2.1% |
| Hong Kong | $1.3 billion | down 39% |
| Russia | $1.1 billion | up 26.4% |
| South Africa | $1 billion | up 11.2% |
| Israel | $961.3 million | down 18.9% |
| Thailand | $714.8 million | up 68.4% |
| Botswana | $472 million | down 19.1% |
| Singapore | $401.6 million | up 225.2% |
| Switzerland | $142.7 million | up 924.1% |
| United Kingdom | $101.5 million | down 4.9% |
| Japan | $99.2 million | down 30% |
| Canada | $67.3 million | down 15.6% |
| Angola | $64.4 million | down 22.4% |
The fastest-growing suppliers were Switzerland (up 924.1%), Singapore (up 225.2%), Thailand (up 68.4%) and Russia (up 26.4%). The steepest falls were from Hong Kong (down 39%), Japan (down 30%), Angola (down 22.4%) and Botswana (down 19.1%). Three of the largest suppliers, the UAE, Belgium and Hong Kong, are trading centres with no diamond mines of their own, so these figures show where the diamonds were shipped from, not where they were mined.
Diamond production in India
India mines very few diamonds today. In fiscal year 2020, production was just over 28 thousand carats, the second-lowest in recent years. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines, the value of production in 2020-21 (provisional) was about Rs 22 crore, for 13,917 carats. Correction (October 2026): an earlier version gave INR 1,800 crore.
Diamond mining in India goes back to antiquity. From ancient times India was the source of nearly all the world’s known diamonds, and the original version of this post said India was the only place where diamonds were mined until diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1896. Correction (October 2026): diamonds were found in Brazil in the 1720s, so India’s position as the only source ended well before any South African discovery. India has not been a major producer since the 1900s, but mining continues. In 2013, India mined 37,515 carats of diamonds from one industrial-scale mine and many artisanal mines, less than one-tenth of one percent of world production of 132.9 million carats.
Cutting, polishing and exports
India’s place in the diamond trade rests on cutting and polishing. India is a leading exporter of cut and polished diamonds, helped by low processing costs, and the country is also a producer of laboratory-grown diamonds, a market that was growing when this post was written. Indian businesses selling diamonds abroad can look at the duty remission and export incentive schemes explained in this guide to Indian export duty savings schemes, and the wider product picture is in India’s top export and import commodities by HS code, 2015 to 2023.
Challenges for the industry
The industry faces swings in demand and prices, and geopolitical sanctions. Western sanctions against Russian diamonds have forced Indian firms to adjust and diversify their supply chains. Laboratory-grown diamonds give the industry a second product line alongside natural stones.
Source: World’s Top Exports (2022 data as published in 2023; the page has since been updated with later years).