With an annual export of over 3 million carats, or nearly one billion US dollars worth of diamond, China has become the world's second largest diamond processing base, said Jiao Jianqun, official with the trade department of the General Administration of Customs.

Meanwhile, along with the rapid consummating techniques in diamond processing and the ever improving living standard of the Chinese people, China has become the largest diamond consumption nation in Asia and the fifth largest diamond consumption country in the world, Beijing Youth Daily quoted Jiao as saying Tuesday.

According to Jiao, sales volume of diamond ornaments amounted to 19.6 billion yuan (US$2.37) in Chinese mainland in 2003.

Diamonds processed in China, with their unique favor, are called by the international diamond circle as "China craft", comparing with "Belgium craft" and "Israel craft" as the world's most superb technique in the trade.

Statistics from the General Administration of Customs showed that China imported 11.44 million carats of raw diamond in 2003, and exported 3.3 million processed diamond with an export volume of US$803 million during the same period.

In the first nine months of 2004, export volume of processed diamonds reached US$788 million. The anticipated export volume for the whole year was more than one billion dollars.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2004)