Este ano será comemorado o ano do Diamante de Antuérpia. A cidade belga tem sido a capital mundial do comércio do diamante há mais de 5 séculos e hoje é amplamente reconhecida como líder na indústria. Antuérpia foi a pioneira no comércio transparente e ético do diamante. As importações e exportações de diamante de Antuérpia geram muito crescimento na economia belga. Esse comércio representa 15% do total das exportações belgas fora da EU e 5% de suas exportações totais.
Antwerp and the Diamonds:
Around eighty percent of all rough diamonds pass through Antwerp on their way towards becoming earrings or other pieces of jewelry. Antwerps is home to both traders and cutters, to diamond schools and start-ups inventing new technologies to get even more brightness out of stones that have gotten an Antwerp Cut.
The biggest
Daily, 220 million dollar worth of diamonds are traded, adding up to an amazing 48 billion dollars annually. On a surface of less than 1 square mile more than 1700 diamond traders are active. No other city in the world houses four diamond exchanges, controls 84% of the world’s trade in rough diamonds en 50% of the trade in cut diamonds.
Every diamond in the world passes at least once in Antwerp! In 2016, more than 202 million carat of both rough and cut diamonds were traded. Adding up to a total value of 48 billion dollar.
The first
For over 5 centuries, Antwerp is the heart of the global diamond trade. The oldest documents to prove the existence of diamond trade in Antwerp date back to 1447. In Antwerp, the ancient craft is combined with modern technologies. The brilliant, the most popular diamond cut in the world, was created in Antwerp by Tolkowsky in 1919. Even today Antwerp remains pioneer in the development of new techniques.
The purest
Antwerp firmly says no to conflict diamonds. Since the approval of the Kimberley Process, Antwerp fulfills the role as global moral leader in transparency and compliance.
In collaboration with competent government agencies all diamond import and export is physically controlled by the Diamond Office, which serves as an example to many other diamond centers in the world.
