Sri Lanka published a gazette under the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development that, for the first time in living memory for many traders, creates a formal path to export rough gemstones that cannot be value-added domestically.
The regulation defines rough gemstones as natural, uncut, and unprocessed material that the National Gem and Jewellery Authority judges cannot be further improved in Sri Lanka because of nature, quality, or market limits. Stones intended for export under this route must first be offered at auction locally. Only parcels that remain unsold after the auction may leave the country under this classification.
Government supporters argue the scheme gives miners a fair price floor and generates export revenue from material that local cutters would otherwise reject. Critics, including academics such as Dr. S. D. Buthpitiya, warn that exporting rough erodes the traditional value chain that turns 360 million dollars of rough into 600 million dollars of cut and polished exports.
The industry is not united. Some firms with overseas operations favour exporting rough to cut in jurisdictions with lower labour costs or better access to foreign buyers. Others rely on domestic Geuda and katta classifications that already allowed limited rough export with a 25% service charge on FOB value.
For buyers abroad, more rough leaving Sri Lanka could mean more origin-labelled crystal entering global markets. For Ratnapura workshops, it is a direct challenge to the mine-to-market story Sri Lanka has sold for decades. The auction gate is meant to protect local cutters; whether it works depends on auction pricing and enforcement against informal rough smuggling that bypasses the rule entirely.
