Dubai dethrones Antwerp to become the world’s new diamond capital

According to trade figures, Dubai is on track to surpass Antwerp’s entire raw and polished diamond export with a trade figure expected to exceed $ 38 billion by the end of 2022.

In 2021, DDE surpassed the diamond trade of Antwerp by clocking $22.8 billion in 2021. Dubai emerged as the world’s largest diamond export and import destination.

The H1 2022 figures for polished trade in Dubai show a year-on-year rise of over 52 percent, to $6.7bn.

Dubai’s rise to prominence as the new diamond capital of the world is all due to its proximity to Russia, India, and African nations. Many diamantaires, most of them who are leading in the diamond trade, from Surat and Mumbai owns their trading offices at the DMCC.

Surat and Gujarat are the destinations where about 90 percent of the rough diamonds produced in the world are cut and polished and exported to Dubai and other parts of the world. Due to the proximity to India, diamantaires and diamond dealers from Surat and Mumbai send their stocks of polished diamonds to Dubai for trading with buyers from across the world.

The DDE, since its establishment in 2012, has traded about 90 billion carats of polished diamonds and 120 billion carats of rough diamonds.

“In the early 2000s, Dubai was neither a producer nor a known destination for diamonds,” said Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman and chief executive officer, DMCC. It had, he said, since become “the largest, and fastest growing hub” in the world.