A centuries-old diamond hub is under strain like never before

Diamonds are the ultimate status symbol, but are they really forever?

For over five centuries, Antwerp’s diamond district in Belgium has been the cornerstone of the global diamond trade, through which 80% of the world’s rough diamonds have passed. Now, that legacy is under strain in ways the city — and the industry itself — has never seen. 

Phil Hoymans, managing director of Bonas, one of the companies that helps run Antwerp’s diamond auctions, said people aren’t aware of what’s happening to the $60-billion-a-year diamond industry.

“Antwerp trades products that come directly from the mine,” Hoymans said

Mines in places like Botswana and Canada send their uncut gems to Antwerp to be traded around the world.

“It kind of works like a Swiss watch,” Hoymans said. “We’re operating here in a square mile where [there are] 1,200, 1,300 diamond companies – many, many different communities and nationalities of people working here.

Ravi Bhansali, the managing director of Rosy Blue, one of the world’s largest diamond companies, is part of a family that’s been in the trade for generations.

“My grandfather would cut and polish diamonds, and his nephew used to sell them, and that was the whole company. So from that to going to today, where we’re about four thousand employees, it’s a beautiful story behind there,” Bhansali said.

Challenges facing the diamond industry

Today, Antwerp now confronts challenges on multiple fronts.

First, “blood diamonds.”

For years, the industry was plagued with exploitation in developing countries — a history that has led to some of the strictest oversight requirements in the global luxury market today.

Second, geopolitics.

For decades, a significant share of the world’s rough diamonds flowed into Antwerp from Russia. That ended abruptly with sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“That’s about three billion dollars of Russian diamonds that stopped flowing through here,” Bhansali said. 

Then came tariffs.

“If they have been cut and polished in India, it’s Indian American tariffs that we have to pay, which are at fifty percent at the moment,” Bhansali said. 

And then there’s the fastest-moving challenge of all: Lab-grown diamonds.

Once a novelty,  now mass-produced, chemically identical and indistinguishable to the naked eye. Bhansali has to scan all of his diamonds — millions per year — to make sure no lab-growns have been snuck in the mix.

If you can’t tell the difference, then why would customers pay the markup for a real gem?

“That same statement can be said for any good counterfeit,” Bhansali said. “This is a finite resource. And I think that forever story holds a special power over something that was grown two weeks ago in a factory in China and cut and polished.”

Plus, there’s another challenge to the industry: marriage rates are declining worldwide. Fewer engagements mean fewer engagement rings.

Fortunately, Jennifer Elliot, the owner of the boutique Elliot & Ostrich, says there’s also a new market: a divorce ring. It’s a piece of jewelry created from a ring from a past marriage, taking the original stone and redesigning it into a new setting that expresses the new you.

Antwerp is evolving. And the rest of the jewelry box of a city isn’t ready to call it quits, wagering that some things are still worth taking their time, and come out stronger under pressure.

” I have no doubt in my mind that we will have an industry here tomorrow,” Bhansali said. “Did you know that the youngest diamonds are a billion years old? The youngest diamonds. So that predates trees on planet Earth. How many things do you carry or hold in your home or wear on your body can you say the same thing for?”