De Beers has made one of the deepest ever cuts to its group of handpicked diamond buyers as the former monopoly grapples with a prolonged crisis roiling the industry, people with knowledge of the matter have said.

The company informed its customers, known as sightholders, on Friday whether they’d kept that status in a series of letters and follow-up calls, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

De Beers cut the number of buyers to between 45 and 50 from around 70, they said.

The storied diamond miner has been mulling the changes for some time, but has deferred a decision on multiple occasions as the sector battles a series of market shocks. Central to its thinking is a determination to funnel more goods to what it sees as the strongest clients at a time when it’s producing fewer diamonds, the people said.

The $80 billion industry is under severe strain. What started as a post-pandemic slump worsened amid a pullback in Chinese luxury spending and the rising popularity of synthetic stones. Trade tensions and sudden geopolitical shifts have added even more pain.

De Beers produced fewer than 22 million carats last year, down from almost 35-million carats in 2022, in a bid to support prices. Some market participants say there are early signs of a recovery in the sector as stocks of some types of diamonds start to dwindle. Yet De Beers’ parent Anglo American is seeking to offload the business and has written it down three times in as many years.

De Beers’ relationship with its customers, which range from Indian and Israeli family businesses to units of jewelers such as Tiffany & Co., has always been complex. The company sells its gems through ten sales each year and the sightholders must accept the price and quantities they’re offered.

Rejecting goods can lead to being offered less in the future or losing access altogether.

That selling system is now under pressure. Through much of 2024 and 2025, the company’s official prices stood well above those in the secondary market, where cutters and polishers trade among themselves. Reluctant to reduce benchmark prices, De Beers began offering discreet side-deals, granting favored customers discounts of as much as 20% — a break from tradition.

That strategy was controversial. People close to the company said it provided stability and channeled more goods to the strongest buyers, yet the opaque approach angered clients, with no transparency over who received discounts while others were expected to pay full price. Some buyers balked, knowing they could purchase the same stones cheaper on the open market.

The reductions to sightholder numbers will come into effect July 1, when the new contract period starts, the people said. Buyers of smaller diamonds — a part of the market where De Beers wields less control and prices have fallen the most — have been hit especially hard by the cuts, they said.