With more than $12 billion of exports in polished and rough diamonds in 2007, Israel recorded its best year on record.

Despite the fact that 2007 was somewhat challenging globally, the country managed to have a record year in diamond exporting. The effort to export goods from Israel increased increased more than 50%, authorities in the diamond industry have reported.

Exports of rough diamonds from Israel increased 25% compared with 2006. $3.4 billion of diamond goods were shipped, compared with $2.7 billion the year before.

Net polished diamond exports totaled $7 billion in 2007, which was 7% higher than in 2006. 53% of exports were shipped to the United States, and polished diamond imports increased 1.3% over 2006.

Also, exports to the U.S. were $3.4 billion. Hong Kong was the next most popular destination, with $1.3 billion of goods, or 19% of total polished diamond exports. Belgian exports were $562 billion, and export to Switzerland were $429 million.

Helping the Israel diamond industry in the future will be a levy reduction. This will allow Israeli diamond dealers to pay less tax on polished diamonds. Meanwhile, the tax on polished diamond imports was cut from .2% to .135%. This is being put into effect retroactively from the start of 2007.