[THEME MUSIC]
My family has been in the gem industry
now for five generations.
My great-great-grandfather started
when he ventured out to Australia in 1890.
And from there onward, they started bringing down opals
and then also doing the sapphire business.
And then moved on from there.
So the family has been in the industry for five generations.
I think we used to come back from school
and there was the traditional gem-cutter at home.
And the goldsmith, both of them are doing their day-to-day work
in the early or late 70s.
And we used to go sit next to them, watch them do their work.
And that is something that started
getting me interested as a kid.
And then we would sometimes wait for the cutter to go home.
And then we would go and sit in his place
and play with the cutting machine.
And also get into trouble after that, for doing that.
So from there onwards, when I was a teenager,
I started being a timekeeper for my father
in keeping a check on his ruby furnace.
So I used to sometimes go and do some adjustments
on the controls of the furnace at the age of maybe 15, 16.
And then we would see what the stone was before and after.
I would be curious of what's going on, what's taking place.
So I started helping him out.
And after high school, I was doing my apprentice
and internship under many mentors,
basically learning the cutting, the buying skills, the selling
skills in the gem trade.
Then going to the mining areas, buying the rough,
seeing how the rough is cut into cut and polished faceted
or cabochon stone.
And pretty much then, how we had to take that stone and sell it.
I was also trained of having to buy a rough
and selling the rough instead of taking it
to a finished product.
Because at that time, many of the Thais
who were buying in the Ratnapura area, the geuda,
they were the actual competition.
As well as because we had a very close connection
and many friends-- five friends--
they actually taught me a lot of their skills as well.
Because it's a five generation business--
and many, many family members.
So you could easily say we have about 100 family
members in the trade.
And they have been doing the business at different levels,
going venturing out to different parts of the world
from the early 1900s, and being very successful
in promoting and selling Sri Lankan or Ceylon
gemstones all over the world from that time.
When I started out of school and during my internship,
the strength was with the Thais.
Because they had huge numbers based out
of Sri Lanka purchasing the geuda.
And they would take it to Thailand
and have it heated and cut over there.
So when we saw that, because we already had the experience.
And we had the knowledge about the cutting, as well
as heating, we thought, let us develop that.
So in the late '80s, early '90s, we
thought OK, let's see how we can get the position back
in having the same kind of goods and making
it available in Sri Lanka.
So it has taken now two decades.
But now, I think we are in a very strong position.
Last five years, the Sri Lankans have actually
used their experience, their skill, their knowledge.
And they're doing an excellent job
in procuring the rough stones from all over the world,
including from the Sri Lanka mines.
And we're also able to do a very good heating process.
We have many people doing the heating.
They're using different types of mechanisms.
They're using the locally made Lakmini,
the Toda, the electric furnaces which are currently available.
And they are mastering the technique
of getting good results out of these materials
from all over the world, enabling
us to have a very good product.
And a good inventory in Sri Lanka for the customers.
Previously, we were keen only to sell Ceylon stones
from Sri Lanka.
We wanted to keep the identity to Sri Lankan stones.
But in the world market, to compete,
to be able to please our buyers, to have the amount of goods
that the orders that were coming in.
We had to enable, like Thailand, an open system,
where goods from the raw material
can come from anywhere in the world, into Sri Lanka
and where we could process it.
Because we had the knowledge and the technique,
but we were holding back on allowing free imports
from other parts of the world.
We have been very successful in our garment industry.
Because we get down everything from overseas--
from the fabric, to the buttons, everything's
brought from overseas.
And we assemble it here.
And we are one of the biggest players
in the international market with garments.
So similarly, we had the skill capacity and the knowledge.
So now, last two years, we have-- the import process
has been simplified.
So any kind of gemstones can be brought into Sri Lanka.
And we have the lapidaries.
We have the jewelry manufacturing sectors
who can contribute basically in processing these, doing
the value addition and having the goods
and inventory ready for customers globally.
With regard to the imports, under the new simplified
system, it's very simple.
You pay $200 and you can bring any kind of stone
into the country for whatever recutting processes,
rough stones for cutting, heating, for all the processes
to take place without any difficulty.
And at the same time since the last year,
we also have a new system for the export where
we can easily-- a customer who is buying
high-value goods of over $200,000 can purchase the goods
and go through customs clearance and take
his flight with the goods in hand without any difficulty.
In terms of African rough, which is very similar to Sri Lankan
material, especially the geuda type of stones,
it was very easy for our heaters to process those stones
and get maximum yield out of it.
And to be able to make good inventory out of that.
The Madagascan material is very much similar to the rough.
Rough is very much a Ceylon type of material as well.
So it was easy for us to do the processing.
Currently, because the Sri Lankans have the ability
to go out and with their skill, they
are buying rough from all over the world,
as well as they are buying cut and polished
from all over the world.
Because they are having their customers
and they know what the customers require,
the Sri Lankans have been selling for the last,
we'll say, 60 years, to customers in the US,
in Japan and Europe.
And sometimes they do know where a specific stone is sitting.
So if they have a new order, maybe
from a Chinese customer, who's asking for a 20 carat
Kashmir sapphire.
They might be knowing where it's sitting in Europe or in the US,
and that can call that old customer and say listen,
we have a Chinese customer.
We have Asian customer who wants this 20 or 30 carat rare stone.
We can sell it for you.
And Sri Lankans are able to buy that and send it
to the Chinese.
So from the rough to the cut and polish material.
I had some friends just buy a 200 carat cat's
eye in Tokyo three weeks ago.
So they are buying stones from everywhere in the world.
So Sri Lanka, pretty much, is going
to become the hub for any kind of precious colored stone.
Yes, that's correct.
We are actually having access to all
of the gemstones from all over the world.
So like I said, we've been selling for the last 60 years
to the global market.
We know who might have what.
Also a lot of the Sri Lankans, now
when there's an exhibition in Japan,
they would go on a buying trip.
And sometimes, Tucson as well.
So my brother-in-law just called me yesterday.
And he has done some super purchasing in Tucson
and he would be basically taking that back
to the Chinese market.