Where Do All the Diamonds Come From?

With Valentine’s Day coming up this week, more than a few diamonds will be given to sweethearts, lovers and spouses. The diamond trade is global, but the major diamond importers may surprise those not “in the business”. The chart below, from howmuch.net, visualizes the relative size of diamond imports by country and further grouped by region. In the case of the U.S., almost all of the diamond imports are for consumption, whereas Belgium and Israel are major diamond processing centers, with subsequent exports of the majority of their imports. Hong Kong, a very small, very wealthy Chinese island protectorate, represents a disproportionately large amount of diamond imports. Upon closer inspection, however, most of the Hong Kong diamonds are moved to the nearby Shenzhen province in mainland China for use in jewelry manufacturing, and then moved back to Hong Kong for subsequent export. If Hong Kong and China were combined, their total would be larger than any other diamond importer on the globe.

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