Ceylon Gem News & Updates
Government sets a billion dollar target for gem and jewellery exports
Officials have set out a plan to grow gem and jewellery exports well past their current level, while acknowledging a gap between what is mined and what is declared.
Sri Lanka’s government has set out plans to grow gem and jewellery exports into a billion dollar sector, alongside reforms covering smuggling, value addition and industry structure. The agenda was outlined when Gem City Ratnapura 2026 was announced, and reported by the Daily FT.
Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Deputy Minister Chathuranga Abeysinghe was reported as saying the plan targets 1.2 billion dollars within five years from 388 million dollars in 2025, and that exports grew 8.7 percent year on year over the first four months of 2026.
The figures do not all agree
Worth flagging plainly. Different officials have quoted different baselines. The Daily FT report references an average of roughly 300 million dollars annually alongside the 388 million figure for 2025. Separately, the Export Development Board chairman was reported in July as putting sector exports at nearly 170 million dollars over the first five months of 2026, at around 8 percent growth.
These may be measuring different things, gems alone against gems and jewellery, or different reporting periods. We are not going to pretend otherwise. If you need an exact figure, take it from the EDB or NGJA directly rather than from any dealer’s blog, including this one.
The part that matters most
The Deputy Minister was reported as raising a gap between mining licence data and export statistics, indicating substantially more material is being extracted than shows up in declared exports, and that the NGJA’s surveillance and monitoring capabilities are being strengthened as a result.
What this means if you are buying
It is a reminder of why documentation is the whole point. A stone with a licensed exporter behind it, a laboratory report you can verify and a customs declaration is a different object from one that left in someone’s pocket, even when the two look identical under a loupe.
We only sell stones we can put through an independent laboratory and export through the proper channel. If you want the detail of how a stone reaches you, our after you buy page sets out the steps.