After James Bond – now meet KAAR (pronounced as “care”)
January 02, 03Seeing James Bond romancing with Halle Berry in a bed that looked more like a bath filled with ‘fake conflict diamonds’ (lovely crystals probably of Swarovski make), one wondered in which countries’ diamond statistics those diamonds would appear if they had been actual rough diamonds.
Israel might well be a good bet, if they had been shipped in December 2002. In that month, the nation’s carat imports were up by 205 percent as compared to December 2001. Actually, in dollars the increase is less impressive - ‘only’ 136 percent reaching some $739 million. What aberration took place in the world to warrant this jump in rough carat imports? The answer may well be Kimberlitic Arithmetic and Accounting Requirements (KAAR). Kimberley will change the diamond world - but not in one day.
KAAR is needed to provide some accommodation in the interim. In Belgium, end of year inventories may well be of greater importance than in Israel, certainly in Kimberley context. Moving carats around a little bit in advance of Kimberley enhances one’s maneuverability and flexibility for when Kimberley is firmly enforced.
We also saw some rather inexplicable high amounts of rough exports in December (up by 113.5 percent in carats and 141.9 percent in dollars), even though in absolute terms these exports weren’t that high. For the whole of 2002, Israel imported 21.4 million carats of rough, 3.2 million of which in December alone. In other words, 15 percent of the entire year’s rough imports took place in one month.
Moreover, the December rough imports were of higher per carat value ($228 p/c) than the average in the previous eleven months ($201 p/c). The total imports were double of what one would have expected - if the December imports in the last few years would be taken as an indicator. We haven’t seen the statistics of other cutting and trading countries yet, but we expect similar aberrations – maybe some even more significant ones.
There are various interpretations for all the activity. Much of it would be reminiscent of the heavy actions in James Bond ‘To Die Another Day’. Actions which simply defy any imagination - or common sense. We are not going to conjecture what happened here. We’ll leave it up to everyone to figure out their own figures.
We have written in this column some time ago that Kimberley would affect statistics. We hadn’t expected KAAR to show up still in 2002. Surprise, surprise – the figures beat us.