More than 500 members of the global diamond industry participated in a serious and charged discussion Monday in Antwerp. The feeling among the participants, also reflecting preliminary talks held on Sunday, is that the while current downturn is related predominantly to the global financial liquidity crisis, it pushed to the surface existing issues such as a rough diamond prices, lack of advertising, and financing.

Opening the afternoon session, De Beers’ marketing head Stephen Lussier, discussed its ambitious fourth quarter advertising program in the U.S. Consumers are cutting expenses but there are areas in which they will not compromise. That is the part of the market in which we are involved. We believe that we can convince them, especially at a time like this, to bundle spending opportunities in order to receive that one item that really means something.”

Providing a banker’s perspective, Paul Goris, chairman of Antwerp Diamond Bank, said that the coming few weeks and months will be critical. “It is a period during which asset protection must take precedence over asset growth,” he noted. During this period, although it certainly is not the moment to further increase bank indebtedness, it is certainly not the moment either for bankers to introduce drastic measures that can bring the industry to a complete stand-still … or even worse.

Earlier in the day, De Beers and Alrosa reiterated that they will be reducing rough supply to the market and declared their support for an all-industry body that will be responsible for the generic promotion of diamonds to consumers.

The symposium was organized by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) on behalf of the world diamond industry.