Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
THE local diamond industry is under threat from laboratory-grown diamonds, which have led to a drop in prices of naturally occurring diamonds.
This was said by Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF) deputy chief investment officer Mr Ernest Denhere on Friday during a tour of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) operations at Chiadzwa by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
ZCDC is one of the State-owned enterprises under the MIF, the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
In his remarks, Mr Denhere said ZCDC was facing unprecedented challenges due to changes on the global stage.
“The company is navigating one of the most challenging periods in its history, shaped by geological constraints, a global diamond market and upheaval and operational headwinds that demand urgent strategic attention,” he said.
“We need to acknowledge the seismic disruption that laboratory-grown diamonds, otherwise known as synthetic diamonds, have inflicted on the natural diamond industry globally. This is not a passing trend but a structural market shift that ZCDC and indeed every natural diamond producer in the world now has to plan around. At their peak, lab-grown diamonds have captured approximately 15 percent of the rough diamond market. Mass production in India and China has exerted significant downward pressure on prices for synthetic stones.”
The proliferation of affordable synthetics, he said, fundamentally resets consumer price expectations, not only for the lab-grown stones but for natural diamonds as well.
Prices have consequently declined by approximately 40 percent over the past two years.
Mr Denhere also said significant producers like De Beers had cut production by 20 percent.
“Most recently, I have been reading about another diamond mine in South Africa, Epaca, with a 158-year history, that is going into liquidation. Closer to home, diamond miners locally and in the region have been scaling down or suspending operations, either in care and maintenance or indeed in corporate rescue, to navigate this turbulent environment,” he added.
“Against this global backdrop, Zimbabwe’s specific diamond sector challenges are more acute. In 2024, Zimbabwe’s diamond extraction grew by 8 percent in volume, yet the total value of the exports declined by 46 percent year-on-year to about US$164 million. Our average price per
carat fell to just US$31, the lowest among major global producers, less than half of the US$62 per carat achieved in 2023. In the first half of 2025, export volumes fell a further 60 percent to 2,7 million carats compared to the same period in 2024.”
