Angola will produce less than 2 million carats of diamonds, rather than the 8 million previously expected for 2020, Ganga Junior, CEO of the National Diamond Company Endiama, said here Friday.

The official told press that the drop in production is being caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the company continues to work on its restructuring to increase production.

In 2019, Angola's 12 mining companies produced 9.2 million carats.

Angola expects to increase diamond production to 14 million carats by 2022, which could make the country the third largest diamond producer in the world.

Gross revenue from Angola's diamond sector in 2019 reached 1.26 billion U.S. dollars, up 10 percent, or 34.7 million U.S. dollars, compared with that of 2018.

The southern African country expects revenue from the diamond sector to rise to 1.5 billion dollars by 2022.