De Beers, the leading global diamond producer said sales for the latest cycle were the lowest but still beat forecast taking into account the seasonality of the industry. According to the company, which is a diamond division for global mining major Anglo American, $485m was captured in the eighth sales cycle of 2016 as opposed to the actual $639m made in Cycle 7 2016.

Mr. Bruce Cleaver

De Beers group chief executive officer, Bruce Cleaver however said even if sales were lower, they still beat expectations. “Demand for De Beers’ rough diamonds in Cycle 8 continued to reflect the improved midstream trading environment compared with 2015,” said Cleaver.

“Our rough diamond sales were slightly ahead of expectation during the Cycle, given the normal seasonal demand patterns, the shorter than usual period between Sights 7 and 8, and the forthcoming holidays in some of the major diamond cutting centres,” he added.

The Cycle 8 2016 provisional sales value represents sales as at 3 October 2016 while Cycle 7 2016 actual sales value is restated following the earlier publication of a provisional figure for the seventh sales cycle of 2016.

Equally, Sales value is quoted in terms of sales by De Beers Global Sightholder Sales and De Beers Auction Sales, and reported on a consolidated accounting basis. Auction Sales included in a given cycle are the sum of all sales between the end of the preceding cycle and the end of the noted cycle. The sales figures come on the back of new data by Statistics Botswana that showed exports of diamonds recorded a drop of 42.0% or P3, 166.1 million in July.