Antwerp's $19.1bn trade turns to India as De Wever visits Mumbai
Bart De Wever went to Mumbai's diamond bourse, a first for a Belgian prime minister on GJEPC's account. Gem and jewellery trade between the two countries stood at $3.5bn in 2025-26.
By The Rough Desk
What changed
Antwerp came to Mumbai. Belgium's prime minister visited the Bharat Diamond Bourse, which GJEPC calls a first for the office. Antwerp traded $19.1 billion of diamonds in 2025 and has lost 30% of its volume to the Russian embargo.
What it means
- If you buy rough in Antwerp: the seller pool is smaller and Indian demand sets the clearing price.
- If you cut in Surat: a Belgium-India agreement would cut duty on goods you already handle.
- What this is not: a signed deal. No instrument was concluded at the bourse.
Key figures
| Antwerp tradeimports and exports, 2025 | $19.1bn |
|---|---|
| India-Belgium tradegems and jewellery, 2025-26 | $3.5bn |
| Lost to the embargovolume and value, AWDC | −30% |
| Rough cut in IndiaUniversity of Antwerp estimate | 90-95% |
Source: AWDC via RTBF and GJEPC, both 4 September 2026 - Antwerp 2025, bilateral 2025-26
The embargo took the volume
Thirty percent gone. "We have lost 30% of the volume and value of goods traded in Antwerp," the AWDC's spokesperson Ine Tassignon told RTBF. Russian sanctions took it.
The total still stands. Antwerp moved $19.1 billion of diamonds in and out in 2025, of which $19 billion was natural rough and polished.
| Measure | Figure | Attributed to |
|---|---|---|
| Antwerp diamond trade, 2025 | $19.1bn | AWDC, via RTBF |
| Of which natural rough and polished | $19bn | AWDC, via RTBF |
| Volume and value lost to the Russian embargo | 30% | Ine Tassignon, AWDC |
| Rough cut in India | 90-95% | Koen Vandenbempt, University of Antwerp |
| Antwerp polished exported to the United States | over 55% | RTBF |
| India-Belgium gem and jewellery trade, 2025-26 | $3.5bn | GJEPC |
Source. RTBF, 4 September 2026, in French, and GJEPC's release of 4 September 2026.
Attribution. is to the person or body RTBF names for each figure.
Translations. from the French are Carat Capital's.
India holds the cutting wheels
Surat does the work. Between 90% and 95% of the world's rough is cut in India, on the University of Antwerp's estimate. Antwerp trades the stone; India makes it.
America takes the output. More than 55% of the polished leaving Antwerp goes to the United States, so American demand reaches Belgium through Indian factories.
What the visit put on paper
Trade at $3.5bn. GJEPC puts gem and jewellery trade between India and Belgium at $3.5 billion for 2025-26. The council published the figure alongside the visit.
Nobody signed anything. The release records a visit and three speeches: De Wever, GJEPC chairman Kirit Bhansali and bourse president Anoop Mehta. No instrument was concluded.
What to watch
- Mid-SepGJEPC's monthly trade data, for whether Indian imports from Belgium moved.
- 1 OctIndia's fifteen-year tax exemption for foreign rough sellers takes effect.
- Q4Any India-EU agreement text covering gem and jewellery tariff lines.
The story so far
- Antwerp's two books splitPolished per carat rose 17.34%, rough fell 26%.
- Fifteen years, no taxIndia exempts foreign rough sellers from 1 October 2026.
- Antwerp thins, India loadsA polished shortage in Antwerp steered buyers to India.
Go deeper
Corrections
Corrected 7 September 2026. The dek, Table I and the body carried a $10bn bilateral target within three years, attributed to GJEPC. The figure is in GJEPC's release of 4 September 2026, so it is not invented, but the release sets it against India-EU trade under the free trade agreement and never says which basket of goods it covers, and $3.5bn of gem and jewellery trade cannot double to $10bn. The claim has been removed from the dek, from Table I and from the body rather than carried with a caveat. Correct as published and unchanged: the $19.1bn Antwerp total for 2025, the $19bn natural share, the 30% embargo loss, the 90% to 95% Indian cutting share, the over-55% United States share of Antwerp polished, and the $3.5bn India-Belgium gem and jewellery figure for 2025-26.
What would change this call
An India-EU agreement that leaves gem and jewellery tariff lines out. The case made at the bourse rests on the sector sitting inside that deal, and nothing published yet says it does.
How Antwerp counts its trade
The AWDC's headline figure adds imports and exports together, so a stone that arrives in Antwerp and leaves again is counted twice. The double count is deliberate and consistent across years, which makes the series comparable with itself but not with a country's net trade balance. It covers rough, polished and laboratory-grown goods crossing the Belgian border through the Antwerp district.
Method
Antwerp's figures are RTBF's report of 4 September 2026, which attributes the $19.1 billion and $19 billion totals for 2025 to the AWDC, the 30% embargo loss to AWDC spokesperson Ine Tassignon, and the 90% to 95% cutting share to Koen Vandenbempt of the University of Antwerp. Translations from the French are Carat Capital's; the quoted sentence reads in the original 'Nous avons perdu 30% du volume et de la valeur des biens qui etaient echanges a Anvers'. The bilateral $3.5 billion for 2025-26 is GJEPC's, published 4 September 2026, as is the description of the visit as a first for a Belgian prime minister; no independent confirmation of that first was found and it is carried as GJEPC's claim. RTBF also reports Antwerp's first-half 2026 trade up 10%; Carat Capital's own reading of AWDC monthly data on 14 July put the comparable half-year gain at 9%, so that figure is left out rather than reconciled.