AED 8.2 billion Abu Dhabi Pearl Trade through 2018

19-03-2019 Media in\ Abu Dhabi
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi’s trade in pearls, precious stones and precious metals witnessed a good activity during 2018, raising the total value to 8.2 billion dirhams, an increase of about 5% compared to 7.84 billion dirhams in 2017.
According to the figures released by the Abu Dhabi Statistics Center, all indicators of pearl and gemstone trade have witnessed significant growth during the past year, especially on the level of exports of this type of goods.
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the UAE are generally listed among the most famous countries in the pearl and gem trade. The pearl diving profession is one of the oldest traditional occupations practiced by citizens over the past decades.
The emirate’s exports of pearls and precious stones rose to AED 2.434 billion during the year 2018, a growth of 539% compared to 380 million dirhams in 2017.
The largest activity in Abu Dhabi’s exports of pearls was recorded in December last year, where the value rose to 1.65 billion dirhams compared to only 26 million dirhams in the same month of 2017.
In terms of re-exports of pearls and precious stones, they reached AED 477 million in 2018 compared to AED 2.5 billion in 2017.
On the import level, the value of imports during the last year amounted to 5.3 billion dirhams compared to 4.96 billion dirhams in 2017.
It is noteworthy that Abu Dhabi’s trade in pearls and precious stones accounted for about 4.8% of the total value of trade of non-oil goods of the Emirate during the year 2018, which amounted to about 167 billion dirhams.