The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) has been holding talks with diamond manufacturers on how to make their Botswana business more economical, the Mmegi.bw website reports.

DTC CEO Varda Shine told Mmegi in an interview that to cover Botswana's higher labor costs - $65-$100 per carat compared to prices as low as $15/carat in places like India – manufacturers would need to buy rough diamonds with a correspondingly high value.

Shine noted that the DTC was working to find ways of allowing the manufacturers to run economical businesses while still creating employment.

"Our first priority is to make the businesses run profitably before they can expand," Shine told Mmegi.

The diamond industry in Botswana and elsewhere is still trying to recover from the price imbalance sparked by the financial crisis of 2008. Analyst Chaim Even Zohar, who spoke at the diamond beneficiation pitso that opened this week's International Diamond Manufacturers' Association Presidents' Meeting, said that as the industry recovered, rough prices bounced back and bounced higher than polished prices, cutting profit margins for manufacturers.