It's better to become realistic about the United States market. In the first half of the year diamond jewelry retail growth was less than 1 percent. At the same time, it's net polished imports (imports minus exports) has risen to $3.66 billion in the first half of 2002, compared to $2.92 billion in the first half last year. That is an increase in polished of some $743 million.

Last year, and that was before the September 11th tragedies, retail demand grew by 8 percent in the first half. It seems now that we need a growth in retail sales of 5 percent on a half yearly basis (or 10 percent on a yearly basis if this trend continues) in order to absorb the excess imports.

We're clearly not seeing growth figures like these at all. Moreover, we see that imports are up 14.6 percent above last year in terms of value, while at the same time; imports went up by 36.4 percent in terms of carats. So, not only do we see an oversupply of polished in general, we see that demand is fast concentrating on the smaller and cheaper goods.

These are all phenomenon that should give rise to concern, unless of course, you happen to own the Argyle Mine, for which goods retail demand couldn't be better. This is a silver lining, which may at best make only some of us happy.