TAGS SOUTH AFRICA - MARCH 2026 MARKET & TENDER REPORT

MARKET OVERVIEW:

The market continues to face the challenges presented throughout 2025, but with some elements of positivity showing since the beginning of the New Year.

Reports from America show evidence of a successful Christmas season and the Valentines sale period.

+10ct stones and 5-10ct sizes remain strong, and we are now seeing some strengthening in the 8gr - 5ct ranges. 3- 6grs remain stable in price, and demand is slowly returning at current prices. The area of goods below 3grs has been tough for some time, but this year we have seen a return to some demand which wasn’t present last year even at lower prices.

The decision by Rapaport to reduce the price on smaller sizes of polished on 20 th March surprised many in the market, as there had been stability in polished price in these areas in the previous weeks.

Rapaport published an explanation on Monday 23 rd explaining that the reduction was more an adjustment to address misalignments within their list, rather than a reflection of recent trading values.

As a result, we saw no reduction in prices offered at our recent sales event.

TAGS JOHANNESBURG TENDER:

Since expanding our operations from Dubai to South Africa last year, we have seen a steady increase in business as we have established the operational reputation we have built over the past 9 years.

We remain very grateful to the growing numbers of both Suppliers and Buyers who have supported us during this period and are seeing the benefits of both TAGS strength and transparency.

Our recent tender in SA took place between 17th – 23rd March.

We were delighted to welcome around 90 of our leading international companies from all the global manufacturing centres. Invitations were sent to over 100 selected specialist companies.

We presented close to 8000 cts of goods in a full-size range, including both high quality Marine and mine production, supplied by our mining partners in South Africa.

Exceptional stones included a D Colour 30ct clean stone and two Fancy/Vivid Yellow stones on 27 and 46 cts respectively all of which sold.

Overall, we sold over 80% of goods presented to around 30 successful buying companies and are pleased to have exceeded price expectation of several suppliers.