Sapphires, emeralds and rubies are quietly becoming the most strategic inventory decision a Canadian jeweller will make this decade. Bridal counters that once defaulted to a single white diamond are now fielding requests for a cornflower-blue sapphire halo or a Colombian-green centre stone, and the retailers who can source those stones with confidence — clean provenance, predictable pricing, verifiable quality — are the ones writing the larger tickets. That is the backdrop against which one of the most consequential supply-side projects in the coloured gemstone world is taking shape, roughly eleven thousand kilometres from Toronto, in the Indian city of Jaipur.
On 20 June 2026, the President of CIBJO – The World Jewellery Confederation, Gaetano Cavalieri, together with Pramod Agrawal, Chairman of the Jaipur Gem & Jewellery Bourse and Vice President of CIBJO, met the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Shri Bhajan Lal Sharma, to advance a project that industry leaders are openly describing as transformative: the world’s first bourse built exclusively for coloured gemstones and coloured-gemstone-studded jewellery. For Canadian retailers, wholesalers and designers, this is not distant trade-show news. It is a structural change to where, and how, the stones in your showcase will be sourced.
What the Jaipur Gem & Jewellery Bourse actually is
The Jaipur Gem & Jewellery Bourse (JGJB) is a planned, purpose-built trade hub dedicated entirely to coloured gemstones — the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Jointly promoted by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and the Jewellers Association Jaipur (JAJ), it is designed to bring manufacturers, traders, international buyers, sourcing offices, gem-testing laboratories, logistics providers, auction facilities and technology partners together under a single roof.
The scale is deliberate. Planned facilities include more than 1,750 trading offices and kiosks, on-site customs facilitation, gemmological laboratories, auction halls and a full range of trade-support services. The project is expected to generate roughly 60,000 additional jobs and is backed by the Government of Rajasthan through land allotment via RIICO and continued engagement under the Rajasthan Investment Promotion Scheme (RIPS). In plain terms: a fragmented, relationship-driven trade is being consolidated into an organised, institutionally supported marketplace.
Jaipur was the logical home for it. The city already processes and trades a significant share of the world’s coloured gemstones and has done so for centuries. As Kirit Bhansali, Chairman of the GJEPC, put it, “Jaipur’s unmatched expertise in coloured gemstones has made it a cornerstone of the global gem and jewellery industry for centuries.” The Bourse is an attempt to convert that heritage advantage into a modern, transparent trading infrastructure.
Why it matters now
Timing is the story. The global coloured gemstone market is projected to grow from roughly USD 1.9 billion in 2025 to USD 5.7 billion by 2035 — an annual growth rate above 11 percent. Bridal demand is a primary engine, with sapphires, emeralds and rubies increasingly chosen as centre stones rather than accents. Cavalieri framed the project as a direct response to that pull: “The market is requesting increasing quantities of coloured gemstones, particularly quality gemstones, and Jaipur has always been one of the world’s most important centres for the coloured gemstone trade.”
He was equally clear that this is not an India-only story. “This is not something related only to India. It is something related to the world through Jaipur and through India,” Cavalieri said, describing the Bourse as a potential reference point for the entire global coloured gemstone industry — one that brings trade, services, sustainability and traceability into a single ecosystem.
That last point is where Canadian relevance sharpens. Canadian consumers and the brands that serve them are placing growing weight on provenance and responsible sourcing. A marketplace engineered around transparency, traceability and responsible business conduct speaks directly to the questions a Canadian buyer now hears across the counter.
How this affects Canadian jewellers
Canada is the second-largest jewellery market in North America, valued at well over USD 21 billion and growing at an estimated 5.6 to 6 percent annually. Yet Canada is a sourcing market, not a producing one, for coloured gemstones — the stones that fill Canadian showcases are overwhelmingly imported. Specific Canadian coloured-gemstone import data is not separately published in the sources reviewed, but the direction of consumer demand is not in doubt: bridal, fashion and self-purchase buyers are reaching for colour, and e-commerce now accounts for close to 30 percent of Canadian jewellery sales, putting sourcing transparency on display for every online shopper.
A consolidated, laboratory-equipped, customs-facilitated marketplace changes the calculus for a Canadian retailer or wholesaler in three concrete ways. Sourcing becomes more efficient, because buyers can compare manufacturers, verify stones and arrange logistics in one place rather than across dozens of disconnected suppliers. Provenance becomes easier to substantiate, because testing and traceability are built into the ecosystem rather than bolted on afterward. And pricing becomes more legible, because an organised auction and trading environment tends to reduce the information asymmetry that has long made coloured-stone buying feel opaque compared with the diamond trade.
The opportunities
For Canadian businesses willing to engage, the upside is tangible. Independent retailers gain a clearer path to differentiated bridal and fashion inventory at a moment when colour is winning shelf space. Wholesalers and importers gain a more efficient procurement channel and a credible provenance story to pass down the chain. Designers and custom houses gain reliable access to quality stones with documentation that supports premium pricing. And for the Canadian market as a whole, a more transparent global supply chain strengthens the responsible-sourcing narrative that increasingly drives high-ticket purchase decisions.
The risks worth weighing
No structural shift is without exposure. Concentrating a large share of coloured-gemstone trade in a single hub raises the usual questions about supply-chain dependence and pricing power. The Bourse is still in development, so timelines, access terms for foreign buyers and the practical mechanics of remote or in-person participation remain to be proven. Canadian buyers should also note recent volatility in jewellery import flows; trade patterns have been uneven, and a new marketplace will take time to demonstrate stable pricing and consistent availability. Engagement should be strategic and staged, not speculative.
What Canadian jewellers should do next
Treat Jaipur as a sourcing relationship to develop, not a headline to file away. Map your current coloured-gemstone suppliers and ask how their provenance documentation compares with what an organised bourse will soon make standard. Watch for the Bourse’s buyer-access framework and trade-show calendar as it moves toward operation, and consider whether direct or representative participation fits your volume. Most immediately, audit how confidently you can answer a customer’s provenance question today — because the retailers who can answer it well are the ones who will benefit first as transparent supply becomes the norm.
The coloured gemstone trade is being rebuilt around organisation, transparency and traceability. Jaipur is where that rebuild is happening. The Canadian businesses that understand the shift early will be the ones setting the pace at the counter while others are still asking where their stones came from.
