Monday, April 4 2005 09:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: The epicentre of Diamond processing has shifted from the Belgian city of Antwerp to the Indian city of Surat, according to a media report.

The Flemish-language (Dutch language as spoken in northern Belgium region of Flanders) weekly "Knack" said that Surat employed about 7,50,000 to one million cutters and polishers, who process rough diamonds "in sometimes shocking conditions for an average wage of 100 euros per month".

Antwerp once employed tens of thousands of diamond processors. Today this number has been reduced to 1,500 distributed across about 1,500 small companies.

About 400 Indian merchants, mainly from Gujarat are engaged in the diamond trade in Antwerp.

Last year India exported processed diamonds to the tune of 7 billion euros, which represents 90 per cent of the global production figure. The export to India from Belgium in 2004 increased by 20 per cent.

"This is a very significant development," Peter Meeus, managing director of the Hoge Raad Voor Diamant (Diamond Council) told the weekly.

"It underlines the position of India as both a diamond market and an industrial centre. India is developing into one of the largest jewel and diamond markets in the world," he said.