India Jewelry Manufacturing: Mumbai, Surat & Jaipur Industry Guide

India is both a massive jewelry consumer and a major producer. It is the world's largest diamond cutting and polishing center — Surat processes about 90 percent of diamonds by volume, employing over 700,000 workers. It is also the second-largest gold jewelry market after China.

Surat's diamond industry is a vast network of small to medium workshops. A typical unit has 20 to 50 workers, each specializing in one stage: cleaving rough, bruting to create the basic shape, faceting on a rotating wheel with diamond powder, and final polishing. A single diamond may pass through 10 different hands. This specialization, combined with low labor costs, gives Surat an insurmountable advantage in cutting small and medium diamonds.

The city is now pivoting to lab-grown diamond production using CVD technology at scale. Surat's established infrastructure for cutting, polishing, grading, and trading gives it a natural advantage — a diamond grown, cut, graded, and shipped from Surat has a shorter, cheaper supply chain than one produced elsewhere and shipped to India for processing.

Jaipur is the colored gemstone capital with over 300 years of history. It processes an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the world's emeralds, plus substantial volumes of ruby, sapphire, and other colored stones. The trade operates from Johari Bazaar where thousands of family-run workshops cut stones using techniques refined over generations.

Mumbai's SEEPZ is the primary jewelry export hub, offering duty-free import of raw materials for processing and re-export. Traditional techniques — Kundan, Meenakari, Jadau — coexist with modern mass production. For buyers, India offers exceptional value in diamond and colored stone jewelry, competitive labor costs for handcrafted work, and growing modern manufacturing capability. A reliable local partner is essential.