A  delegation  of 16 Turkish jewellers, wholesalers and manufacturers visited Antwerp earlier this week and met with several Antwerp diamond companies. The visit was arranged under the AWDC’s  Antwerp Diamond Visitor Program. This followed on the heels of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between AWDC, Borsa Istanbul and the Turkish Jewelry Exporters Association a week prior to the visit.

“As one of the fastest growing economies, strategically positioned between Europe and Asia, and supported by a strong government will to develop Turkey as a global trade hub for polished diamonds, the Turkish diamond market is clearly on the up,” explained the AWDC in a statement. Turkey’s position as “the gateway to countries in the Black Sea area and Central Asian countries such as Kazachstan and Turkmenistan”, which AWDC believes represent an estimated 300 million potential consumers, was an added incentive to the Antwerp diamond industry for forging closer bonds with Turkish jewellers.

 “Just a few months ago, the Turkish government abolished the import duties on diamonds, making it more interesting to increase for trade between Europe and Turkey at competitive prices,” said Turkish jeweller Kadir Gözkara from One Service. “Turkish jewellers no longer depend on a handful of wholesalers.”

The 20 Antwerp diamond companies that participated in the two-day interactive sessions also reacted positively to the event.

Jireh Chau from Brilliant Trading Company commented: “Turkey is an interesting market and through this AWDC initiative we managed to further expand our existing network significantly. This specific approach, whereby instead of Antwerp companies travelling to Turkey, the Turkish retailers come to Antwerp, is not only more efficient and cost-effective, but also more interesting from a security point of view as we can show our goods in our own offices. We will certainly participate in similar new AWDC initiatives.”

“We have been present on the Turkish market for 34 years, but during this event, we managed to meet with new people, some of which were important large jewellers,” said Shashin Choksi from Swati Gems. “The Turkish market has evolved tremendously over the past years, which creates new opportunities.”

This was the first such event organised under The Visitor Program by AWDC. “This new approach was clearly successful”, said Margaux Donckier, spokesperson for the AWDC. “Bringing potential clients to Antwerp instead of flying a delegation of Antwerp companies to Turkey not only enables us to save time and money. At the same time it allows us to demonstrate Antwerp’s unique strengths in terms of quality standards and the level of transparency we uphold to new and upcoming markets.”