Dubai’s total trade of diamond volumes reached 182 million carats in 2009, marking an increase of 22 percent over 2008. According to figures from the Dubai World Statistics Department, a total of 80 million carats of polished diamonds were traded through the emirate in 2009 increasing by more than 150 percent from 2008 when 32 million carats were traded.

Rough diamond trade increased marginally by a little over 3 percent and reached 97 million carats in comparison to 94 million carats in 2008. The impact of lower global diamond prices was reflected in the reduced value of trade, which saw a 13 percent decline, reaching US$18 billion in 2009 compared to US$20.76 billion in 2008.

Polished diamonds imports to the emirate grew by nearly five per cent during 2009, to reach US$6.9 billion from US$6.6 billion during the same period in 2008. Exports in the same period were up 30 percent from US$ 5.4 billion to US$ 7 billion.

“Globally, the consumption of luxury goods has been impacted due to the prevailing economic challenges,” said Ahmed bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Authority. “Despite such tough market conditions, these encouraging trade figures reflect the strong trade and consumer market in the region. The trend underlines the Middle East’s growing significance as a flourishing diamond consumer market, and more importantly, Dubai’s established role as the trade hub through which this market can be accessed.

“Dubai’s strategic location continues to be a significant advantage to leverage the trade in global rough and polished diamonds. We look forward with a great degree of optimism as we expect the trade to rebound strongly with consumers returning to purchasing diamonds on a larger scale than compared to last year.”

Dubai’s diamond trade was mainly driven by India, Belgium and Hong Kong, which were the top trade partners for Dubai with growing trade from new markets such as Angola, Switzerland and the USA.