Ramat Gan: The Israel Diamond Exchange’s program, in cooperation with Panford (Israel) Ltd., to offer a special allocation of rough diamonds for young diamantaires was officially launched yesterday. The program, which was originally announced in September 2014 at the initiative of Yoram Dvash, then head of the IDE Industry Committee, makes available small parcels of De Beers rough from first hand and at fair prices.

At a ceremony held at Panford’s offices attended by IDE President Yoram Dvash and Deputy President Yehezkel Blum, a group of specially chosen young diamantaires, up to the age of 40, received their first rough allocations. Each received an envelope containing some 40 diamonds with an average weight of 3.27 ct. The total lot, consisting of two commercial boxes from De Beers mines, was valued at $2.250 million. A condition of the program is that all of the diamonds are to be manufactured in Israel.

IDE President Yoram Dvash said, “Today we are realizing an initiative which we have dreamed about for a long time – the sale of rough diamonds at convenient prices to young manufacturers, in parcels that they can finance. We came to an agreement with Panford to allocate suitable rough at good prices but we needed to wait to begin the program until rough prices stabilized.”

Panford (Israel) Ltd. General Manager Dudi Shiama said, “When Yoram Dvash proposed this initiative we readily agreed. We are trying to build a track that will create optimal conditions for new manufacturers,” he said. As a special gesture, Panford is providing credit of 70 days for the initial allotment.

Dvash added, “We thank Panford and Dudi Shiama for making this project happen. We aim to make this into a regular supply of rough for these manufacturers. This is one of the ways that we are boosting manufacturing in Israel.”