DIAMOND TRADING COMPANY (DTC)
One part of De Beers is the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), the ‘Syndicate’, which controls over 45% of the world trade in rough diamonds. Because of this market position, prices can be kept stable, which is of great importance both for the producers, the wholesalers and diamond dealers, but also for private buyers. The producers not represented by the DTC, those which sell freely (Ghana, Brazil, Venezuela), profit from this stability. The total size of the world trade in rough diamonds was estimated at 17.5 billion USD in 2018. Aside from trade and distribution, the DTC (until 2000 known as the Central Selling Organisation (CSO)), also engages in diamond-related marketing and promotion. The campaign ‘a diamond is forever’, which began in 1947, is renowned. Other large producers of Diamonds are Alrosa (Russian), BHP Billiton Diamonds (Canadian) en Rio Tinto (British/Australian). Cecil John Rhodes (1853 - 1902), founder of the De Beers Mining Company. (De Beers Archives)