Israel’s flourishing diamond industry may be affected by failure of Belgian diamond companies to support an Israeli plan for a joint committee to market polished diamonds of the two countries, it was asserted today.
Michael Tsour, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Trade and Industry, reported the failure. He led a group of Israel diamond producers in negotiations with six groups representing the Belgian diamond industry for such a plan.
The failure will make it difficult to avoid adverse consequences of uncontrolled competition in world markets, it was explained. These could include substantial price fluctuations which would deter retailers from maintaining large stocks of diamonds. Israel is now one of the largest centers in the world in the diamond industry, supplying about 90 percent of medium sized diamonds for the world market.
While the London diamond syndicate is the major world source of unpolished diamonds, only one-fifth of Israel’s diamonds come from the syndicate which is currently accepting only 55 of Israel’s 155 diamond firms on its quota list.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
