Diamond trade makes up 50% of trade with India, Israel official says

Fifty per cent of Israel’s trade activities with India are in the diamond industry, the President of Israel Diamond Exchange, Boaz Moldawsky, said yesterday.

“The diamond industry’s trade with India accounts for about 50 per cent of all general trade between Israel and India, representing $1.5 billion per year,” Moldawsky told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He pointed out that his country exported “rough stones,” adding that it was “mainly importing polished stones” from India.

Israel imports raw stones from all over the world, while many Indian companies specialise in polishing the rocks.

In April it was reported that Israeli diamond traders were helping to fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine as a result of a loophole in US law which allows traders to sell Russian diamonds if they come via Israel, bypassing sanctions.

This was despite the pledge of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid that “Israel will not become a bypass route for the sanctions imposed on Russia.”

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