OREANDA-NEWS In 2023, Russia imported 3.4 times less pearls than 10 years ago (the total cost decreased to 818 thousand dollars), and Armenia turned out to be the main seller, which did not supply it to the Russian Federation at all until 2017, RIA Novosti reports.

The country accounts for more than half of the volume of Russian imports of these jewels, it follows from the calculations of journalists based on open data. Half as many pearls were imported to Russia from China. Thailand and Hong Kong were also among the suppliers.

According to the agency, in 2014, the volume of imports to the Russian Federation amounted to 2.8 million dollars, and the importing countries at that time were France, China, Japan, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Thailand and Germany.

Earlier it became known that the main buyers of Russian gold in 2022 and early 2023 were the UAE, Turkey and China, which accounted for 99.8 percent of supplies.