Article from http://www.amber.com.pl

The concentration of Baltic amber (succinite) extraction in a small fragment of the Russian enclave in the Kaliningrad Oblast’ and the equally tiny area of the Ukrainian deposit near Klesiv, on the Volyhn and Polessye frontier, which together yield almost all of the raw amber supplies for the entire world market, accounts for the dominant share of the export from these countries to the countries which have the most advanced amber manufacturing bases, i.e. to Poland and Lithuania, and recently also to Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China.

The raw amber supply shortage

Since 2003, the Russian Amber Factory in Yantarny has been exporting over 70% of its raw amber output (in 2006 as much as 90%). However, in terms of volume these numbers are constantly diminishing due to the collapse of the scale of extraction. Although raw amber prices are steeply rising year-on-year, the value of the exported material is small and has never exceeded 15 million dollars per annum.

In the context of global international trade, which has consistently exceeded 15,000 billion dollars every year in recent years (arms excluded), this is a practically trace quantity: about one-millionth. So it would be hard to speak of any importance amber might have in the economic dimension of international trade. The export sales of finished goods with amber matter somewhat more in international trade; over 90% of these exports are by Polish and Lithuanian companies and they are estimated at USD 360,000,000 (including inter-European trade, i.e. export to other countries of the European Union). This sum (expressed in dollars) has not risen for several years, which in practical terms means a regression given the US currency’s diminishing purchasing power and the precipitous drop in its exchange rate.

The small trade volumes and the small number of countries interested in this niche economic phenomenon are the reason why the amber trade does not stand out in official statistics. Poland is an exception, as this branch of the economy, which is so typical and traditional here, is monitored by the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Cracow, who I have been working with on the analysis and assessment of extraction, trade and processing for over a dozen years. The above amounts are quoted in the Institute’s annual reports for the Polish government.

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