While diamonds are Surat's defining industry, the city's gem trade infrastructure — cutting expertise, trading networks, and export documentation systems — has supported growing colored gemstone activity alongside it. For wholesale buyers looking to diversify beyond diamonds, that overlap can make a single sourcing trip more valuable.
Why colored gemstones follow the same infrastructure
Much of what makes Surat efficient for diamond buyers — skilled cutting labor, established export documentation through the customs house at Surat Diamond Bourse, and a trading community accustomed to serving international buyers — applies equally to colored gemstone trade. Buyers don't need an entirely separate sourcing trip to a different city to explore both categories.
What's realistically available
Availability varies by stone type and manufacturer specialization — colored gemstone sourcing is generally less concentrated than diamond cutting, so it's worth being specific about which stones you're interested in (and expected volume) well ahead of a trip, so manufacturer matching can account for it alongside your diamond buying category.
Certification works differently for colored stones
Colored gemstone grading standards and terminology differ from diamond grading, and treatments (heat treatment, for example, which is standard and disclosed for many colored stones) need to be clearly documented. Buyers new to colored gemstone sourcing should ask specifically about treatment disclosure as part of due diligence, the same way they'd verify certification for diamonds — see our guide on verifying manufacturer legitimacy for the broader due-diligence approach, much of which applies here too.
Planning a combined trip
If diversifying into colored gemstones is part of your buying strategy, it's worth flagging that clearly when planning a visit so manufacturer matching can account for both categories from the start. A hosted VisitSDB visit can be scoped around a combined diamond-and-gemstone buying category.
Get in touch and tell us what you're looking to source — we'll scope the visit around it.
Published by the VisitSDB team. Updated .
Planning a purchase? Read our wholesale diamond sourcing guide before comparing manufacturers.