Every product has a Supply Chain (SC) consisting of several integrated processes, extending from raw materials to end products and beyond end use. Supply chain management is important in any industry. Attention to SC concepts was especially vital in manufacturing industries due to industrial changes such as rising costs and shrinking product life-cycles which made reduction of overall cost and enhancement of profitability imperative. Mining industries have also begun to adopt SC practices, not only for aforementioned reasons but also for sustainable and ethical purposes too. This is the trigger for the SC application in gemstone industry [1]. Generally, gemstones are defined as rare and hard materials used for adornment or decoration, and these include diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Even though diamonds are gemstones, the industry maintains a scientifically illogical distinction between diamonds and other gemstones. Gemstones which are not diamonds are denoted as “coloured” gemstones [2]. A gemstone SC consists processes such as extraction, rough gemstone trading, cutting and polishing, polished gemstone trading, jewellery manufacture, wholesale and retail, and participants such as miners, rough gemstone sellers, buyers for cartels and collectors, gemstone dealers and retailers [3]. In a traditional industry, gemstones are passed through these participants to retailers with low-profit margins, compared to wholesale companies like De Beers who uses their own mines to extract gemstones. There are other SC structures practised in between these two extremes with a varying number of intermediaries and performance. From ancient times to the present, Sri Lanka holds a prominent position for coloured gemstones. In 2014 gemstone exports were accounted for 1.3% of total export value which is approximately 18.65 billion rupees. This shows a great value created by the local gemstone industry and yet it is a secretive industry due to community-based, informal and traditional market practices. More than 50 varieties of gemstones are mined in Sri Lanka and some other varieties are imported, and go through a series of processes, triggering the gemstone SC. There has been very little research on the gemstone SC in Sri Lanka and this assessment identifies and maps existing SC structures.

Rifan, R., & Jayaratne, P. (2017). Evaluation of the supply chain for coloured gemstones: the case of Sri Lanka [Extended Abstract]. In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2017 (pp. 45-49). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2017/