Shanghai Expo

Belgian diamonds steal Expo hearts

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:31

EXPERT'S TAKE | CHLOE MARKOWICZ

From May until October last year I spent almost every day surrounded by hundreds of diamonds. As the assistant manager of the Diamond Exhibition Corner of the Belgian Pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010, my role was to educate Chinese consumers about Belgium's reputation for cutting the world's finest diamonds.

The idea of exhibiting and selling Antwerp diamonds at Expo Shanghai 2010 was an initiative of the Belgian diamond manufacturer Mickey Weinstock, and was endorsed by Leo Delcroix, commissioner-general of the Belgian EU Pavilion.

The combined appeal of diamonds, chocolates and fries saw more than 6 million people visit the Belgian Pavilion, making us the fifth-most visited pavilion.

We sold 65 million yuan (6.98 million euros) worth of diamonds, including more than 800 loose diamonds, mounted in more than 600 rings and 100 pendants. More than 1,000 pieces of diamond souvenir jewellery were sold.

The Expo got off to an auspicious start when our first customer, EU Foreign Minister Lady Ashton, bought a pair of diamond earrings.

The summer was the most challenging part of the Expo. We endured Shanghai's blistering heat and had trouble in finding customers among the throngs of students and tour groups.

Still, we could not have dreamt of selling so many large and high- quality diamonds throughout the Expo - more than 300 of the 800 diamonds sold were bigger than one carat. We were advised that customers would not spend more than 100,000 yuan, which is why this was the limit of our credit card machine. When we sold our most expensive stone, a 3.03 carat worth 610,000 yuan, we had to run the credit card through the machine several times.

The Diamond Corner was a crash-course for the Chinese visitors, who were eager to learn about the 4 Cs of diamond grading (color, cut, clarity and carat). Most initially believed diamonds are from South Africa but we explained that while many rough diamonds are mined in Africa, the best diamonds are expertly cut in Belgium.

Several customers were desperate to ensure they were getting a genuine high-quality product.

Our loose diamonds were limited-edition stones branded with the laser inscription Shanghai 2010 and a unique certification number from the diamond-grading laboratory HRD Antwerp. Almost everyone wanted to see the inscriptions for themselves.

The simultaneous high and low point of the Expo for me was Oct 31.

When the pavilion opened at 9 am that last day there were few visitors, but only an hour later we were deluged. All our private sales rooms were full and there was a line of 10 people waiting for their last chance to buy Belgian diamonds.

Shanghai 2010 marked the first time that a pavilion attempted to sell large quantities of diamonds at the World Expo and we successfully established Belgium's reputation for premium-quality diamonds in China.

The author was assistant manager of the Diamond Exhibition Corner of the Belgian Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page66)