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Surat: All is not well in the gems and jewellery industry in India, especially in the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat. A scary picture emerges when one looks at the import and export figures of the diamond jewellery sector during 2025-26. There has been a huge decline in the diamond jewellery export to the tune of 35% due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
According to the export figures of diamond jewellery released by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), it is found that in March 2024, a total of Rs. 23821.76 crore worth of diamond jewellery was exported. In the same period i.e. in March 2025, the export of diamond jewellery from India to foreign countries has decreased to 16,597.20 crore. Thus, there has been a drastic decline of 35.23 percent in the export of diamond jewellery in just one month. Experts say that due to the war that broke out in the Middle East, exports to Dubai and Europe have come to a standstill.
Similarly, if the cut and polished diamond exports are concerned than in March 2025, a total of Rs. 7798.82 crore worth of polished diamonds were exported. But, in the same month in 2024, the export of cut and polished diamonds was Rs. 10,002.52 crore. Thus, in the month of March itself, there has been a sharp decline of 27.48 percent in the export of cut and polished diamonds.
But on the other hand, there has been a sharp increase in the import of rough diamonds. In the month of March 2025, a total of Rs. 1955.41 crore worth of rough diamonds have been imported into India. In March 2024, the import of rough diamonds was only Rs. 442.62 crore. Thus, the statistics show that there has been a 312.15 percent jump in the import of rough diamonds in a single month.
The cut and polished diamond exports for which Surat is known all over the world have shown negative results in the accounting year 2025-26. In the financial year from April-24 to March-25, a total of 13,292.43 million US dollars of cut and polished diamonds were exported abroad.
Recently, in the financial year 2025-26, which ended on 31st March 2026, the export of cut and polished diamonds was 12,159.83 million US dollars. Thus, there has been a decrease of 8.52 percent in the export of cut and polished diamonds compared to the previous financial year. The main reasons for this are being attributed to the tariffs imposed by the US government and the subsequent war that broke out in the Middle East.
In the 2025-26 financial year, diamond jewellery exports were halted for 7 months due to the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and then the war in the Middle East in February and March had a severe impact on diamond jewellery exports. Due to which, there was no growth in diamond jewellery exports in 2025-2026 compared to 2024-2025, but an overall decline of 3.32 percent was recorded. In the 2024-25 financial year, a total of Rs. 2,24,827.6 crore was exported, against which diamond jewellery exports in 2025-26 were limited to Rs. 2,42,559 crore. This is the first time that diamond jewelry exports have not shown growth but have shown negative returns.
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