Antwerp’s first participation in the Mine Entra Fair

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the world leader in diamond trade, participated for the first time in this week’s Mine Entra Fair in Zimbabwe. "By participating in this event the Antwerp World Diamond Centre wishes to reaffirm its strong commitment to the sustainable development of the Zimbabwe mining industry to ensure a long term benefit for the country’s economy," said Ari Epstein, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

The recent collaboration with the Zimbabwean mining authorities was made possible thanks to the lifting of the European sanctions.

Antwerp is an optimal market for Zimbabwean rough diamonds due to the large number of potential buyers located in the city. A total of about 1700 diamond companies operate in Antwerp.

Ari Epstein, CEO of AWDC stated: “The recently organized tenders in Antwerp have had a dramatically positive impact on the prices for the Zimbabwean rough diamond production. The greatly improved prices have had an overall positive impact on the market, the local mining revenues and the increasing demand for transparency in the market," said Ari Epstein. "These higher revenues are a crucial element for the sustainable social and economic development of Zimbabwe."