Belgium saw a significant increase in diamond imports and exports in both March 2011 and the first quarter of 2011 as a whole, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre reports.

Polished diamond exports for the month totaled 970,475 carats with a value of $1.30 billion – a 39.4% increase by volume and a 16.4% increase by value year-on-year. The first quarter of 2011 saw polished exports of 2.34 million carats valued at $3.43 billion – a 30.1% increase by volume and a 30% increase by value.

Belgium exports 12.5 million carats of rough diamonds in March 2011, which represents a year-on-year decline by volume of 8.1%, but rough exports were still up 33.9% by value, totaling $1.35 billion. In the first quarter as a whole, Belgium's rough exports totaled 34.1 million carats, 2.1% less than in the corresponding period of 2010 but still up 29.1% by value from Q1 2010.

March polished imports stood at just under 960,000 carats, up 23% from March 2010; while polished imports for Q1 totaled 2.43 million carats worth $3.20 billion – an increase of 21.5% by volume and 26.2% by value.

Belgium also imports 10.6 million carats of rough diamonds in March 2011 and 30.9 million carats of rough throughout Q1 2011. The rising cost of rough product caused the value of Belgium's rough imports to jump 49.1% for March and 40.8% for the quarter.