According to the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the backlog on diamond shipments in Antwerp that accumulated due to new EU restrictions on Russian diamonds, has become more manageable.
Thanks to new staff at the city's Diamond Office which added 30 employees, shipments now take less than 24 hours to process, sources and media in the industry reported. Additionally, recent information sessions have helped lower the number of incomplete files importers are submitting to 15% from the previous 90%, the AWDC explained.
When the Group of Seven (G7) nations implemented the new sanctions guidelines at the start of March, diamond dealers in the city of Antwerp that became the single entry point for diamonds in the EU, reported massive delays on imports even with proper documentation. Stones below the 1-carat threshold were also facing holdups.
Speaking about a centralized diamond traceability solution to be brought into operation from September 1, a senior Belgian official said that the EU has “a strong, solid legal framework that is very explicit about what is expected as of Sept. 1.”
“We may not be tracing every single stone [in September],” the official said. “We may be tracing based on parcels, on batches. But the commitment to get started on a solid baseline and then progressively continue on that basis is very strong.”
Theodor Lisovoy, Editor in Chief of the European bureau, Rough&Polished
