Data

Data endpoints

Machine-readable SA diamond price + lab-grown collapse datasets. CSV and JSON. CC BY 4.0. Free to cite, embed, redistribute.

Endpoints

SA Diamond Price Index, May 2026

• sa-diamond-price-index-2026-05.csv (text/csv)
• sa-diamond-price-index-2026-05.json (application/json)

7 carat bands (0.50ct to 3.00ct) at G/VS2/Excellent GIA spec. For each: natural wholesale + retail ZAR ranges, lab-grown wholesale + retail ZAR ranges, and the wholesale band in US dollars per carat at the SARB May 2026 average (R16.48). All figures are this column’s estimates. Plus channel-markup multipliers (Bedfordview wholesale, mid-tier independent, chain mall retail, tourist tier).

Lab-grown wholesale price collapse, 2019 to May 2026

• sa-lab-grown-collapse-2018-2026.csv (text/csv)

This column’s annual estimate of the wholesale price of a 1ct G/VS2 Excellent lab-grown CVD stone, 2019 through May 2026, with the SARB average ZAR/USD rate for each year and annotated drivers (Lightbox launch, IGI lab-grown grading volume surpass, etc.). Corrected 19 October 2026: the natural series and the dollar columns were removed (the natural line showed steady prices, which Rapaport’s published index contradicts).

Quote Bank ledger (crowdsourced buyer-paid prices)

• Submission form: /quote-bank-submit/
• Aggregated ledger: planned, once there are enough submissions

Anonymous buyer-submitted SA diamond purchase records, bin-coded by spec band, dealer category, suburb, and month. Aggregated medians and a public ledger CSV are planned once 100 or more verified submissions are collected.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercially. The only requirement is attribution.

How to cite

Inline (journalism):

According to The Diamond Edit’s SA Diamond Price Index
(https://diamondedit.co.za/sa-diamond-price-report-2026/), a 1.00ct
GIA G/VS2 Excellent diamond wholesales at R75,000 to R110,000 in
South Africa in May 2026 (an estimate).

APA:

Mokoena, T. (2026). The SA Diamond Price Index, May 2026. The Diamond
Edit. https://diamondedit.co.za/sa-diamond-price-report-2026/

Harvard:

Mokoena, T., 2026. The SA Diamond Price Index, May 2026. [online] The
Diamond Edit. Available at:
<https://diamondedit.co.za/sa-diamond-price-report-2026/>
[Corrected 19 October 2026].

Methodology

The price index bands are this column’s estimates for each stated specification in May 2026, not quotes, survey results or readings of the Rapaport (RapNet) or Idex lists. Dollar figures use the SARB average rand-dollar rate for May 2026, R16.48 (daily range R16.27 to R16.76). Corrected 19 October 2026: earlier versions gave the rate as R18.50 and described the retail figures as walk-in observations.

The 2019 to 2026 lab-grown series is this column’s estimate per year, shown with the SARB annual average ZAR/USD rate.

Full methodology at /sa-diamond-price-report-2026/#methodology.

Update cadence

Current version: 1.0.1 (corrections, 19 October 2026). The estimates are not on a fixed refresh schedule. Each version is dated in the filename and the JSON version field; corrections are made in place and logged at /corrections/.

Changelog

• 27 May 2026, v1.1: Added Quote Bank submission endpoint. Documented public Quote Bank ledger as planned for v1.2 (July 2026).
• 27 May 2026, v1.0: Initial publication. 7 carat bands x 4 channels x natural + lab-grown. Lab-grown collapse 2019-2026 series.

Get notified of updates

RSS feed: https://diamondedit.co.za/rss.xml. Subscribe in any feed reader; new dataset versions appear as new entries.