Antwerp: The final installment of 500,000 carats of seized diamonds with an estimated value of a little under $29 million has finally been returned to Zimbabwe, bringing a complicated dispute to a close. Denying an attempt by a South African mining company to attach diamonds to an unrelated case against the State of Zimbabwe, a Belgian Court of First Instance ruled that the diamonds in question were not in fact the property of the State but the property of the Zimbabwean mining companies that produced them. This ruling has now made it through the appeals process and has been implemented in full.​

AWDC, Antwerp World Diamond Centre, is an industry-established foundation, whose mission is to serve and support the diamond business in Antwerp, the world’s most important diamond trade hub. AWDC is the coordinating body and the official representative of the Antwerp diamond sector, and as such is recognized internationally as the host, spokesperson and intermediary for the Belgian diamond community. In this capacity, AWDC liaises on behalf of the Belgian diamond sector with governments and actively promotes support for the diamond sector at home and abroad.

84% of all rough diamonds and 50% of all polished diamonds pass through Antwerp. Diamonds represent 5% of the total Belgian exports and 15% of all Belgian exports outside the EU, making diamonds the most important export product outside the EU.

KW: