Antwerp diamond sector remains hopeful despite falling trade and bankruptcies
The trade in rough diamonds in Antwerp shrank last year to a third of what it was in 2022, Gazet van Antwerpen reports. Total trade, including rough and polished diamonds, fell by 22.8 per cent in a year. However, the sector remains hopeful.
Trade fell for both exports and imports from around 9 billion dollars in the first 11 months of 2022 to 3 billion in the first 11 months of 2025. For polished diamonds, trade fell from 10 to 6 billion dollars, and several Antwerp companies have recently been declared bankrupt.
The figures also mean Antwerp is no longer the world’s most important trading centre. Centres such as Dubai and Mumbai do not regularly publish their figures. However, because they trade in synthetic diamonds, unlike Antwerp, their volume is much greater.
“The natural diamond sector, diamonds that come from mines, is in trouble worldwide because synthetic diamonds are much cheaper,” Professor Koen Vandenbempt told GvA. “This trend has been going on for a while, but the crisis is now very deep and is only getting deeper.”
Natural diamonds were popular between 1950 and 2000, he explains, but the younger generation is less interested in traditional stones from a mine.
“The Antwerp diamond sector should have invested 15 years ago to become a centre for synthetic diamonds, but it seriously underestimated the popularity of the synthetic variety,” Vandenbempt says. “Now it is too late, because the synthetic diamond sector has a completely different business model, with a completely different infrastructure.”
Antwerp is also struggling with the European ban on trading Russian diamonds, implemented following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
"The Antwerp diamond sector should have invested 15 years ago to become a centre for synthetic diamonds"
Nevertheless, the situation is not hopeless, according to Ine Tassignon, spokesperson for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, which represents the local sector. She points out that the decline has slowed in recent months, and trade last month was 5 per cent higher than in December 2024.
Among the reasons for optimism are the zero tariffs on diamonds exported from Antwerp to the US, compared to 50 per cent for Indian diamonds, and a fall in the price of synthetic gems due to mass production.
“Thirdly, due to the sharp decline in demand for natural diamonds, few diamonds have been produced in recent years,” Tassignon told GvA. “Wholesalers and jewellers are now running out of stock, which means more diamonds are being extracted from mines and there may soon be a slight increase in trading. So there are hopeful signs for a better future for our sector.”
#FlandersNewsService | The Motswedi, the second largest rough diamond in the world, at HB Antwerp diamond company headquarters, September 2025 © PHOTO NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
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