RAPAPORT... Botswana’s diamond exports fell 56 percent to $126.1 million in July, according to data published by the bank of Botswana. Exports through the first seven months of the year increased 31 percent to $1.54 billion.The bank’s data is a representative sample of the company’s full diamond trade and is sourced from the Diamond Trading Company Botswana, two of 16 manufacturing units in the co...

RAPAPORT... With a population of just over two million people spread across a landmass comparable in area to that of Texas, Botswana historically was rural, tribal and agriculture-based. That is, until the discovery of diamonds in 1967 turned the country into a poster child for the benefits of a well-functioning African democracy and an economic success story. Observers credit the effective rela...