GABORONE, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Sales of rough diamonds at Debswana Diamond Company fell 49.2% in the first half of 2024, according to data released by the Botswana central bank late on Wednesday, as the downturn in the global diamond market continued.

Debswana, equally owned by the government of Botswana and Anglo American Plc’s De Beers, sells 75% of its output to De Beers with the balance taken up by state-owned Okavango Diamond Company (ODC).

Botswana and De Beers in June last year agreed a new ten-year diamond sales deal, which will see ODC’s share of Debswana output rise to 30% before gaining gradually to 50% by the end of the new contract, as the country seeks to get more revenues from its resources.

In the first half of the year, Debswana sold diamonds worth $1.29 billion compared to $2.54 billion registered in the same period last year, Bank of Botswana data showed. In local currency terms, the Debswana sales fell 47.3% to 17.555 billion pula.

Anglo, which plans to divest from De Beers as part of an organisational shake up, cut diamond production by 19% during the first six months of the year. It reported last week that output guidance at De Beers was revised down to 23-26 million carats from 26-29 million in response to the diamond market’s ongoing downturn.

Botswana gets 30%-40% of its revenue, 75% of its foreign exchange earnings and a third of national output from diamonds.

($1 = 13.5685 pulas)

(Reporting by Brian Benza, Editing by Bhargav Acharya and Miral Fahmy)