The Indians continue to strengthen their positions in the diamond business of Antwerp.
Staunch adherents of Jainism, a religion preaching non-violence and vegetarianism, they wear suits tailored in Italy and drive around in posh Mercedes cars.
Though not all of them managed to get higher education, today they are heads of large companies commanding a 60-percent share in the global diamond trade.
The inflow of Indian natives to Antwerp began in the 1930s and 1940s, and this Belgian city, where the Jewish diaspora started to cut diamonds and trade them in the 15th century, was chosen by the Indians not at all accidentally. According to the Flanders today, thereby at that time they carried out a confidential mission of buying up large diamonds for members of the royal families of India and Nepal.
Already in the 1960s the Indians were regular visitors to Antwerp. They were smart enough to quickly evaluate the huge potential of small rough diamonds for the diamond-manufacturing industry overlooked by the Jewish dealers mainly interested in larger stones.
It was the newcomers from India who gave a push to fast development of trade in small diamonds later transformed into a full-fledged market.
Rosy Blue was one of the first ten Indian companies to strike a contract with De Beers for rough supplies gaining the prestige of being the diamond miner’s sightholder in 1969. Today Rosy Blue is the largest diamond company in the world, operating in 15 countries with more than 100,000 employees.
The Indian diamond community in Antwerp started as a handful of Gujarati natives, but expanded to 300 in the 1970s encouraged by Belgium’s lenient immigration laws, but the main thing was that they spotted a unique opportunity to secure a footing in business offered in the then crisis environment on the diamond market which weakened the positions of traditional traders shutting down many companies and diamond-cutting factories.
At that time, confidence in the market was completely lost, says Kaushik Mehta, managing Director of Eurostar. He spotted an opportunity despite the crisis and opened a diamond-polishing plant on the outskirts of Antwerp, which is now home to some 500 families of the Indian community accounting for 8% of Belgium’s diamond exports worth €26 billion and employing 30,000 people.
Chasing cheaper labor offered by India the majority of diamond cutting facilities were transferred by the Indians from Antwerp to their country of origin. The Indian state of Gujarat is now the world’s diamond-cutting center number one, while diamonds have become India’s largest export segment.
Indian companies are currently expanding their business into manufacturing larger stones measuring up to five carats. For this purpose they have set up polishing and jewelry facilities in countries ranging from China to South Africa.
Despite their weighty chunk in the diamond tade, Antwerp’s Indians are still adhering to the traditions of their business, sealing multi-million dollar deals with a simple handshake and wishing luck in Hebrew. This is just to confirm that once they were just one part of the fiefdom run by the Jewish diaspora of Antwerp with which they shared similar values in culture and tradition.
The business of Indian diamantaires is an intrinsically family affair. They profess a “one pocket” credo when all the family members work to benefit the company they own notwithstanding the diamond sector they are engaged in.
Antwerp which has the status of the largest diamond center processing over 80% of the world’s rough diamonds and 50% of polished diamonds is home to 1,800 companies, four diamond exchanges, two specialised banks – ABN Amro and the Antwerp Diamond Bank – as well as representation offices of the major diamond-mining companies, De Beers, ALROSA, BHP and Rio Tinto.
Indian banks such as State Bank of India, ICICI and Bank of India have also set up their branches in Antwerp to cater to the growing financial needs of Indian diamantaires in Antwerp.
The prominent position now enjoyed by the Indian diamond community in Antwerp’s diamond landscape mainly rests on the support rendered by the Belgian authorities. In May 2006, diamond dealers from India gained a historic victory when they won five out of 12 seats on the board of the diamond industry’s key government organisation – formerly known as the Diamond High Council (HRD), and now part of the AWDC.
This effectively broke the monopoly position that Jewish traders had exercised on the board for many centuries.
The election of Nishit Parikh, staunchly supporting the idea of preserving the gateway city on the Schelde River as the world’s diamond capital, to be a new AWDC President is another recognition of the role played by the Indians in Antwerp’s diamond business.
Nishit’s father came together with his family to Antwerp, where he established Diarough (a company turned to be one of the 79 sightholders of De Beers) in 1975, from Navsari, an Indian city on the country’s west coast. In Antwerp the company now run by Nishit Parikh employs about 50 people and it has diamond-cutting facilities in Canada, South Africa, Botswana, India and Thailand.
The Indian nationals working in Antwerp consider it their home and many of them have even adopted Belgian nationality out of choice. In order to give back to the city that offered them a world of opportunity, the community has invested in social projects in local schools and hospitals.
The construction of a Jain Temple in the suburb of Wilrijk accomodating many Indians will be a special event in the life of the Indian diaspora. It is already considered the best Jain Temple outside India in terms of craftsmanship.
Alex Shishlo, Editor of the Rough&Polished European Bureau in Brussels
