The Diamond Pulse – October 2025

Trade Faces Tariffs, Tough Times and Early Holiday Talk

September was an interesting month for the diamond industry. Some issues saw the first shoots of repair, while the overall market still struggled with the ongoing lack of demand, which is expected to haunt holiday sales. Tariffs reached a turning point, as President Donald Trump put diamonds on the list of products that could receive exemptions under future trade deals. The first country to reach this arrangement was Belgium, with the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) announcing the nation’s polished-diamond imports would now be tariff-free. However, miners had yet to see improvement, with Ekati mine owner Burgundy revealing it’s seeking funding to keep the business afloat. Gemfields’ revenue plunged 47% to $64.2 million for the first half, as it paused production at its Kagem emerald mine to save money, and Gem Diamonds cut four years off the life of its Letšeng mine following cost-cutting initiatives that would prevent it from working on new portions of the deposit.

Holiday forecasts from Bain, Mastercard and others predicted holiday sales would grow this year but didn’t include jewelry in that assessment. However, a survey of independent jewelers showed festive sales, and especially those of natural diamonds, were going well.

There was a lot of talk surrounding De Beers, as the company extended its sightholder contracts by six months and both Botswana and Angola announced they were seeking a stake in the mining giant. Meanwhile, lab-grown was a popular subject. The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) said it wanted to remove the term lab-grown from its Blue Book, and Signet Jewelers raised its full-year forecast following strong sales, in large part thanks to lab-grown fashion jewelry.

Here’s your diamond market analysis from Rapaport Trade for September 2025

In September, the price for the 1-carat RAPI softened to $4,437 by month’s end, down 0.9% from the previous month, when the index had fallen 1.1%. Better clarity diamonds in the D-H IF-VVS category led the decline in the index, falling an average of 1.1%, while the mid-tier VS quality diamonds fell only an average of 0.5%.

D-F and G-J SI categories saw a decline of an average of 2%, while in August they fell an average of 3%. Low-quality diamonds in the K-M VS-SI category saw an average decline of 1.8%, compared to August when they fell an average of 0.9%. Distribution across Rapaport Trade inventory categories and searches remained unchanged for the fifth consecutive month.

Please note: the searches breakdown are a breakdown of buyers searches on Rapaport Trade

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