Diamond cutters in Armenia's diamond industry would like to increase the country's imports of rough diamonds from Russia to $100 million a year and sign contracts with as many diamond suppliers on Alrosa's customer list as possible, the Arka News Agency reports.

In September of this year, Armenia agreed to sign long-term supply agreements with Alrosa. And last week, members of an Armenian-Russian commission on international cooperation met and adopted a protocol on diamond supply, under which Alrosa will over $20-30 million worth of rough diamonds to Armenian diamond companies in 2011.

Data published by the Armenian government states that in 2009, Armenian diamond companies cut just under 50,000 carats of diamonds – a year-on-year decrease of 50.9%.