According to preliminary data, during the year 2005, Armenia’s diamond reproduction amounted to 113.583 billion AMD ($248.5 million) instead of 115.185 million AMD in 2004. This was informed by the head of the Gem and Gold reproduction Department of the RA Ministry of Trade and Economic Development Gagik Mkrtchyan. According to him, the reason of the reduction of diamond reproduction was the fog in December in Yerevan. Due to this, airplanes didn’t fly to Yerevan and out. This didn’t allow Armenia to receive raw material for diamond and the product couldn’t be exported. He added that December is the best diamond sale period of the year. Mr. Mkrtchayn said that last year 800 thousand carat diamond was reproduced of which 180 thousand carat was exported to Russian distributors. The majority of the raw material was imported from Israel and Belgium.
