Belgium's Diamond Trade Down to "Catastrophic" $9bn
November 21, 24
(IDEX Online) - Belgium's diamond trade recorded "catastrophic" figures for 2023, with total imports and exports down to just $9.2bn (€8.5bn).
The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) said in a press release published on 15 November headlined: "foreign trade stagnates while diamond trade collapses".
It said the diamond trade had "almost halved" since 2014, when it was worth $15.8bn (€15bn) and that 2023 figures were "catastrophic" (des chiffres catastrophiques in the French original).
The announcement comes just days after the UAE Ministry of Economy said its diamond trade for 2023 was worth almost $39bn - that's more than four times the Belgian total.
Juma Al Kait, assistant undersecretary for international trade affairs, said it would exceed $40bn this year.
In Belgium the NBB said: "Since the beginning of 2023, not a single month has been recorded in which the diamond trade has recorded a positive growth rate compared to the corresponding month of the previous year."
It said diamonds now account for less than 2 per cent of Belgium's total trade, down from 4 per cent a decade ago.
Belgium has lost out to lower manufacturing costs in India, it said, to the emergence of Botswana as a new player, to the Russian boycott and to competition from Dubai as a trading hub.
Pic shows Antwerp's Diamond Quarter.