Armenia`s diamond exports and imports decreased  after a year and a half of growth

ArmInfo. Armenia experienced a significant increase in the export and import of diamonds from 2023 to mid-2024, followed by a decrease in volumes. Throughout 2024, both  export and import volumes  of diamonds decreased by 6% (compared to growth of 88.2% and 39% in 2023) - to 4201.6 thousand and 3320.2 thousand carats, respectively, as evidenced by  data from the Customs Service of the Republic of Armenia. A similar shift in dynamics was noted for the customs value of exported and imported diamonds: moving from a 41.5-44.2% growth to  an 18-12% decline - to $485.6 million and $500.8 million, respectively.

The majority of exports went to the UAE - 74.8% (compared to 84.6% in 2023), followed by Hong Kong - 16.4% (compared to 2.7% in 2023), Russia - 7.6% (compared to 11.9% in 2023), India - 0.7%, Belgium and Israel - 0.2% each. Very small volumes were distributed between Belarus, Germany, Thailand, Canada, Kazakhstan, the USA, and  Georgia. A small quantity of diamonds began to be exported to Italy and Norway. The export of diamonds to Moldova has completely stopped. The majority of diamonds was imported from the Russian Federation - 73% (compared to  46.7% in 2023), with smaller amounts coming from India - 15.7% (compared to 31.3% in 2026) and the UAE - 9.2% (compared to 7.9% in 2023). Lesser quantities were imported from Angola - 0.5% (compared to 0.1% in 2023), 0.3% each from Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel (compared to 2%, 7% and 0.2% in 2023), Belarus and Botswana - 0.1% each (compared to 6.1% and 0.1% in 2023), with very small amounts imported from China, Tanzania, Thailand, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the USA. France and Italy also began importing diamonds  in small quantities.  The import of diamonds from Switzerland, Iran, and Congo has completely stopped.

According to statistics, production volumes in the jewelry industry continue to appear very modest, despite the significant growth recorded in 2022-2023. In 2022, the production volume  in the jewelry industry increased by 51.8% (to 42 billion drams), while the export and import of precious metals and stones increased by 3-2.8 times (to $989.3 million and $690.8 million, respectively). Then in 2023, the volume of production in the jewelry industry jumped by 4.9 times (230.9 billion drams), and the significant growth in the export and import of precious metals and stones not only continued, but also accelerated to 3.2-3.3 times (to $3.2 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively). However, in 2024, the production volume in the jewelry industry decreased by 32.2% (to $ 135.4 million), and the export and import of precious metals and stones slowed down in growth to 2.5-2.7 times (amounting to $ 8 billion and $ 7.4 billion, respectively).  The downward dynamics continued in 2025: in the first half of the year, the production production in the jewelry industry dropped by 69.2% (to $ 30.4 million), and the export and import of precious metals and stones decreased by 77-78.8% (to $ 1.3 billion and $ 1.1 billion). According to experts, the very fact that three years ago precious metals and stones began to significantly dominate exports and imports, with low production volumes in the jewelry industry, already indicated a sharp increase in re-exports and re-imports, which, judging by the data for 2024, still took place. But since 2025, it has become impossible to conduct such transactions in the previous volume due to the settlement of the issue of customs duties on jewelry products within the EAEU.

It is known that since 2020, the Russian Federation has more than three times submitted a proposal to the EEC to zero out the import customs value of colored precious stones and small-sized diamonds up to 0.2 carats. But the issue has not been resolved - Armenia blocked the zeroing of duties. Due to the import customs duty on precious stones, it was much more profitable to import finished jewelry products from third countries that are not members of the EAEU than to produce them in the union. The import duty rate on finished jewelry products is lower than the rates on precious stones (10-15%) for their production.  However, since 2025, this "high-yield" effect has been lost. Russia has zeroed out duties on the import of jewelry products from the UAE.