One voice for African diamond producers.

African diamond producers could boost both the prices fetched for their stones and their global influence by banding together and not relying on foreign organisations to determine markets and prices.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

This is the message from Sebastiao Panzo, spokesman for Angola's state-owned Endiama diamond company. "The people deciding on the price of diamonds and making policies on diamonds at the moment are non-producers in Antwerp and Israel," says Panzo. "We in Africa need our own platform to discuss these issues. We need to unite our views and integrate them." Endiama was instrumental in the formation of The Association of African Diamond Producing Countries to be launched in the Angolan capital in November this year.