Carnage in diamond cutting industry
Thursday, May 07, 2015
According to information reaching BusinessWeek, another local cutting and polishing company, Diacore has retrenched 50 employees taking the total number of affected workers in the industry to around 1,000 in the past year.
At its peak, the industry employed about 3,700 workers. Companies that have recently retrenched include Moti Ganz (100), Leo Schachter (100), Eurostar (100), Shrenuj (90) Safdico (30), Zebra (50), Dalumni, Tiffany’s (50) while Teemane (400) and DMB closed shop. Diacore diamond polishing company, which has been operating in Botswana for seven years, employed about 130 people before trimming down the workforce to 80 employees.
Acting Agriculture Minister, Edwin Dikoloti, is right in saying opening an export-ready facility whilst Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is still spreading would risk getting the whole country blacklisted before a single carcass leaves the door.A ban like that would break the already stressed nation. So, the postponement, painful as it is, is the right thing to do. The local economy is being squeezed from both ends. FMD has already slammed the door...