India steps into Sri Lanka’s cutting and finishing chain

India is providing technical training, market linkages and investment support to Sri Lanka’s gem and jewellery sector, according to reporting on 11 August 2026. The stated aim of the cooperation is to move the country from exporting raw gemstones toward higher value finished jewellery.

The old problem

Sri Lanka has long sold rough and lightly worked material that gains most of its value somewhere else. A stone dug in Ratnapura, cut in Bangkok, set in Hong Kong and sold in Geneva leaves only a fraction of its final price behind on the island.

Cutting is the first place that changes. Most Ceylon sapphire is already cut and polished locally, and rough export has historically been restricted. Setting, design and branding are the stages where the gap is still widest.

What value addition actually looks like

The phrase gets used loosely. In practice it covers a short list of concrete things: cutting to a standard rather than to a weight, in-house laboratory testing, hallmarked metalwork, finished design and a brand a foreign buyer recognises well enough to pay a premium for.

Training and market linkages address the first three. The last two are slower, because they depend on reputation rather than equipment, and reputation in this trade is built one verifiable stone at a time.

What this means if you are buying

More local finishing should mean more stones available cut to a standard rather than cut to a weight. That is a real distinction. A stone cut to preserve carat weight often carries a window or an off centre culet that costs it colour and brilliance, because the cutter was paid for the number on the scale.

It is worth asking any seller whether a stone was cut for weight or for performance, and whether the cutting happened where the stone was mined.

Our stones are cut and polished in Sri Lanka, and where a buyer wants a mount we make it in our Colombo workshop. The stone is reported loose first, before any setting. You can read more about how we work.