CaratAntwerp'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. Trade between the two countries runs at $3.5bn, and both councils want $10bn within three years.
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.
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.
| 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 |
| Bilateral target within three years | $10bn | GJEPC |
IThe 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.
IIIndia 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.
IIIWhat the visit put on paper
Trade at $3.5bn. GJEPC puts gem and jewellery trade between India and Belgium at $3.5 billion. It wants $10 billion within three years under an India-EU agreement.
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.
01What would change this call+
An India-EU agreement that leaves gem and jewellery tariff lines out. The $10 billion target rests on the sector sitting inside the deal, and nothing published yet says it does.
02How 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.
03Method · the desk’s arithmetic+
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 and the $10 billion three-year target are 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.
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