Moscow, May 30 -- The European Union's revenues from diamond exports in the first quarter of the year fell to a record low of 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion), Sputnik has calculated based on Eurostat data.
Sales in January-March fell by a third to $1.37 billion compared to $2 billion in the same period last year. Such a low revenue in the first quarter has never happened before in history: in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, EU countries earned 1.9 billion euros from diamond exports, and even in the midst of the global financial crisis in 2009 it was still a little more - 1.5 billion euros.
The main diamond exporter among EU countries traditionally was Belgium: its shipments decreased by a third and totalled 1.3 billion euros. Ge...