Botswana Bans Raw Diamond Exports: 'All Will Be Cut and Polished Here'

Botswana, the world's leading diamond producer by value, has made a declaration that could reshape the global gem trade: no stone mined in the country will leave it raw. President Duma Boko's edict — 'No diamond will leave this country raw; all will be cut and polished here' — commits the nation to capturing far more of the value chain that has historically flowed to cutting centres abroad.

The policy is the boldest statement yet of a long-held African ambition known as beneficiation: processing raw materials at home rather than exporting them for others to refine and profit from. For Botswana, whose economy has been built on diamonds for half a century, requiring domestic cutting and polishing means jobs, skills and industry that have historically resided in places like Antwerp, Surat and Tel Aviv.

The timing is delicate. Botswana's diamond sales have been battered by weak global demand in recent years, with the slump hitting mining communities hard. But the country's mines minister says a tentative recovery is under way in key markets like the United States and China, helped by a global marketing push for natural stones over lab-grown alternatives. State-linked miner Debswana plans to lift output to 18 million carats in 2026, from 15 million last year.

There is glamour in the story too. The 20.46-carat Okavango Blue — the largest blue diamond ever discovered in Botswana, unearthed at the Orapa mine — is set to star in a spectacular necklace unveiled in Paris by French jewellery house Messika, to whom the government entrusted the rare Fancy Deep Blue gem.

The backdrop to all of it is change at the top of the industry: Anglo American's planned sale of De Beers, the company that has defined the diamond trade for a century, has drawn interest from Angola and Namibia among others. As the industry's ownership map is redrawn, Botswana is betting that the surest way to protect its future is to keep more of its diamonds — and their value — at home.