Can rough opal be exported from Ethiopia?
Yes. A licensed exporter may ship opal from Ethiopia rough. The Transaction of Minerals Proclamation No. 1144/2019 lets an export licence cover minerals that are raw, processed or semi-processed (Art. 12), and it classes opal as a semi-precious mineral (Art. 2). The rule that part of every exporter's opal had to leave cut, often quoted as 40% cut to 60% rough, was lifted in July 2021.
Why guides still say otherwise
The rules changed several times between 2013 and 2021, and older accounts stay online. Each of these is still quoted as if it were in force:
- A ban on rough exports (2013). In January 2013 the Ministry of Mines said it would ban rough gemstone exports from the start of the next fiscal year. By August 2013 it had dropped the plan. A press report at the time said about 80% of rough opal went to India, and that six of the 52 members of the gemstone association owned cutting and polishing machines.
- A share that had to be cut (2013 to 2021). In place of the ban, each exporter had to ship at least 10% of its opal cut and polished. Between 2013 and 2015 the share rose to 20% and then to 40%, the "40:60 rule". A World Bank study in 2016 judged that the rule was not being met.
- The 2009 law. Proclamation No. 651/2009 on precious minerals was repealed by the 2019 proclamation.
What changed in July 2021
Wazema Radio reported on 11 August 2021 that a rule issued the month before had repealed the cut share, so that companies could export precious and ornamental minerals rough, without limit. The Minister of Mines and Petroleum announced it. The Ministry said some companies holding stocks of opal and other minerals had been unable to meet the share, which by then stood at 20%. Cutting and jewellery firms, about 200 of them, objected, and the Ministry said it would discuss the rule again if the harm proved serious.
We have not found the text of the 2021 rule published. The account above rests on that report and on the export figures since.
What the export figures show
Rough opal has kept leaving through official channels. In the Amhara region, which includes Wollo, raw opal was 18.70% of the USD 18.24 million in precious-mineral exports in the 2025/26 fiscal year and value-added opal was 7.73%: roughly USD 3.4 million rough and USD 1.4 million worked. Where Ethiopian opal goes has the destinations.
Minimum export prices
Price is a separate rule, and a less settled one. The proclamation lets the Ministry set the price of minerals that have no international price (Art. 28). In June 2022 the Ministry removed its set export rates for gemstones. In October 2022 it proposed new floors, after a three-month period in which rough opal exports rose more than fivefold by weight and revenue rose 6%: USD 150 a kilogram for uncut Wollo opal, USD 80 for crystal opal, USD 50 for uncut opal from North Shewa, and USD 1,000 for cut opal, uncut emerald and uncut sapphire. These were drafts, and exporters asked for floors by grade. We have found no final or later table published, so a floor price quoted with a recent date should come with its source.
What could change
The government still wants more opal cut in Ethiopia. In November 2025 the Minister of Mines told parliament that gemstones would be traded on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, under a new proclamation then with the Ministry of Justice; Opal and the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange follows it. The same month, Capital reported that the government had halted raw exports of lithium and tantalum. It reported no such halt for opal or other gemstones.
What it means for a buyer
- Buy rough from an exporter that holds a mineral export licence for opal. The licence is issued for each type of mineral (Art. 12), and the exporter must show the legal source of the rough it ships (Art. 17).
- Ask which rules apply on the day you order. They changed in 2013, in 2015 and in 2021, and a new proclamation has been drafted.
- The steps and the papers are in How a parcel leaves Ethiopia, and the checks to make first are in How to check an Ethiopian gemstone supplier before you pay.
Maedot exports under an Ethiopian mineral export licence; How buying works shows the steps.
Sources
- Transaction of Minerals Proclamation No. 1144/2019, Federal Negarit Gazette No. 86, 15 August 2019, articles 2, 12, 17, 28 and 39
- 2merkato, “Ethiopia to Ban Rough Opal Export”, citing Fortune, updated 14 August 2013
- 2merkato, “Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines to Scrap Ban on Export of Rough Gem, Raw Tantalum”, citing Fortune, updated 14 August 2013
- Kyngdon-McKay, Jorns, Wheat and Cushman (Estelle Levin Ltd for the World Bank), “An Analysis of the Commercial Potential of Ethiopia’s Coloured Gemstone Industry”, June 2016
- Wazema Radio, report on the lifting of the share of gemstones to be exported cut, 11 August 2021 (in Amharic)
- Surafel Ashebir, The Reporter, “Gold Accounts for Three-Quarters of Amhara’s Mineral Export Earnings”, 1 August 2026
- Addis Fortune, “Market Forces to Drive Gemstone Trade: Ministry”, 25 June 2022
- The Reporter (Amharic edition), report on the Ministry of Mines’ proposed minimum gemstone prices, 12 October 2022
- Eyasu Zekarias, Capital, “Gemstone trade to be regulated through ECX to combat smuggling”, 23 November 2025
More from the journal
How a parcel leaves Ethiopia
A licensed exporter's bank issues the export permit, and the Ministry of Mines and customs clear the parcel in Addis Ababa before it flies, insured.
Where Ethiopian opal goes
Most Ethiopian opal leaves rough for India and is cut in Jaipur. The figures, and what they mean for buyers elsewhere and in India.
Opal and the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange
Opal contract specifications for the exchange are finished, but no gemstone has traded on it yet. What has happened since 2021, and what it means for buyers.