Tough market forces ODC 2015 sales down by 45%

Diamond Sorter.PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
Diamond Sorter.PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

Sales by the state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) fell 45 percent to US$303 million in 2015, weighed down by “very challenging market conditions” in the mid-stream, BusinessWeek has established.

Established as part of the 2011 renewal of a sales agreement between De Beers and government, Okavango in 2015 was entitled to purchase 14 percent of  Debswana’s production and independently auction it. Contractually, the figure rises to 15 percent this year.

Yesterday, Okavango managing director, Toby Frears said the number of carats sold by the company had dropped in 2015 to 1.6 million from about 3.3 million in 2014.

Editor's Comment
Human rights are sacred

It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...

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