JOHANNEBURG, South Africa (AFP) — Botswana and southern African peers that built much of their prosperity on diamonds are scrambling for alternatives as cheaper, lab-grown stones threaten their economies.

Diamond-dependent Botswana is leading the way and launched a sovereign wealth fund this week to lay the “foundation for a more resilient, sustainable and diversified future beyond diamonds.”

It is exploring other avenues too, like boosting luxury wildlife tourism, launching into the medicinal cannabis market and exploiting its abundant sunshine for solar power.

President Duma Boko has even mooted taking a majority stake in industry giant De Beers and selling Botswana’s diamonds independently.

“Countries such as Angola, Namibia and South Africa are all exposed but not to the same degree as Botswana,” economist Brendon Verster at the Oxford Economics Africa think tank told Agence France-Presse.

The stones are the country’s main source of income and account for about 30 percent of its gross domestic product and 80 percent of its exports, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But, as consumers turn to cheaper diamonds created in China and India, the average price of a one-carat natural diamond is falling.

The price dropped from a peak of $6,819 in May 2022 to $4,997 by December 2024, according to the World Diamond Council.