Indians sweep Antwerp diamond centre polls

Indians cemented their status as the new moguls of the global diamond trade, making a clean sweep of the elections to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), held on Wednesday. The AWDC is the governing body of Antwerp’s diamond trade, presiding over a multibillion dollar business that accounts for nearly 10 percent of Belgium’s exports.

For decades the ancient port city has been the glittering centre of the global diamond business with 8 out of 10 rough diamonds in the world changing hands here. And, although in the popular European imagination diamonds are a trade that remain associated with the long frock coats and black hats of orthodox Jews, it is Gujarati Jain families who dominate the trade, controlling up to 70 percent of the business.

Yet, for many years, this new eastward direction in the industry was unacknowledged, with the board of the AWDC, formerly known as the HRD (Hoge Raad voor Diamant or Diamond High Council) remaining an all-European, predominantly Jewish, affair. Despite Indians having begun to operate in Antwerp in large numbers from the 1970s, the first change at the AWDC took place as recently as 2004, when two Indians were nominated to the board.

At the time the board exclusively comprised of nominated officials. It was only in 2006 that changes to the system allowed some board members to be directly elected, with the result that 5 out of 6 elected members that year were Indians.

On Wednesday, all six elected members were Indians. However, there are still no Indians amongst the remaining six nominated officials.

But Sohil Jhaveri of Sauraj Diamonds, one of those elected, told Business Standard that votes for the Indian candidates cut across community lines. “Belgians, Jews, Lebanese were amongst those who voted for us, and even though we may be Indian we will represent the entire trade, not just the Indians,” he said.

Among the issues the newly elected board will work towards is ensuring that financing the diamond industry remains robust, a concern in recent years. Antwerp is currently fending off challenges to its status as the world’s diamond capital from a range of upstart contenders, including Dubai and even Mumbai.

Another new concern that needs to be tackled is security. A spate of robberies within the diamond community in Antwerp have taken place over the last few months. The most recent was in March, when the wife and teenage children of diamantaire Pankaj Maldar were held hostage while he was forced to collect and hand over his entire stock of diamonds to armed robbers.

Others elected board members include Nishit Parkh of Diarough, Nishit Kothari of Jewelex, Mihir Mehta of Dianco star and Samir Mehta of Sneh Diam.