Good news from one of the world’s most important diamond hubs: according to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), imports and exports for 2021 totaled $37.23 billion. In 2020, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, that figure was $24.94 billion, IDEX Online reports.
The number of carats imported and exported totaled 204.61 million in 2021 – up 6% on pre-pandemic 2019.
Ari Epstein, CEO of the AWDC, commented: “The Antwerp diamond sector has now definitely left the pandemic behind and we are once again looking to the future.” Epstein added that the first rough auction of 2022 broke a record for Antwerp, yielding an average $130 per carat.
