Alrosa’s first quarter of the fiscal year ended with a 5% decline in revenue, 29.6 billion rubles ($1.06 billion) despite rising rough diamond prices. Net profit for the period has however increased by 42% to 12.04 billion rubles ($431 million).

The Russian diamond monopoly said it sold more diamonds in the first quarter of 2010 due to the sale of stock accumulated in 2009, 12.7 million carats versus 9.1 million carats in the first quarter of 2011.

Increasing rough diamond prices, up 34%, helped balance the drop in volume. The average price increased from $76 p/c to $102 p/c.

The company reported mining 10 million carats in the quarter, saying it made it the largest diamond producer globally, placing De Beers second with 7.4 million carats.

Alrosa is planning to go public, and in recent months has been publishing data about itself with growing transparency.