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Where Ethiopian opal goes

Research · · Maedot

Most Ethiopian opal leaves the country rough and goes to India. Capital reported in December 2023 that more than 85% of Ethiopia's opal exports go there. A report commissioned in India, summarised by Ethiopian Business Review, found that more than 98% of the USD 4.65 million in gemstones Ethiopia sold to India in 2022 was opal.

Where it is cut

When GIA's team visited the Wollo mines in 2018, it found that most of the material was processed in Jaipur. Ethiopia trains cutters too: a government lapidary programme at Kombolcha Polytechnic College has run since 2009. In 2024, about twelve people completed an eleven-month gemmology course with the World Gem Foundation, and the Ethiopian News Agency called them the country's first career gemmologists. Still, worked opal remains a small share of what leaves the country.

The numbers

  • In the Amhara region's 2025/26 fiscal year, precious-mineral exports came to USD 18.24 million. Raw opal made up 18.70% of that, and value-added opal 7.73%: roughly USD 3.4 million and USD 1.4 million.
  • Nationally, gemstones are a small part of mining exports. Ethiopia's mining exports reached a record USD 5.7 billion in 2025/26, of which gold accounted for USD 5.65 billion.
  • In November 2025 the Ministry of Mines reported gemstone exports at 93% of its foreign-exchange target and called the trade underdeveloped.

What it means for you

If you buy in Europe, the Americas, the Gulf or East Asia, you can buy rough directly from Addis Ababa rather than after it has passed through other markets. If you buy in India, a preferential certificate of origin from the Ethiopian Customs Commission may lower the duty you pay under India's duty-free tariff preference scheme, which the same report found under-used. Ask your customs broker, and tell us when you order so we can request the certificate.

Sources

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