Diamond Parks and India’s Gem-Processing Industry

Nine out of every ten polished diamonds worldwide pass through one Indian city. This article covers Surat’s diamond industry, and the record-breaking building it just built.

The World Comes to Cut Its Diamonds

IndEco0087

90% SHARE

Surat Dominates

Cuts and polishes most of the world’s diamonds

22 AUG 2023

Guinness Record

Surat Diamond Bourse named world’s largest office building

17 DEC 2023

Officially Opened

The Bourse begins operating as a trading hub

7 MILLION SQ FT

Bigger Than the Pentagon

Houses 4,500 offices, 65,000 buyers, makers and sellers

The concentration: one city, one building, most of a global luxury industry.

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Timeline

• Surat holds a roughly 90% share of global diamond cutting and polishing, making it the world’s dominant processing centre.
• 22 August 2023: Guinness World Records named the Surat Diamond Bourse the world’s largest office building, surpassing the Pentagon.
• 17 December 2023: The Bourse officially opened, beginning operations as a diamond trading hub.
• It spans over 7 million sq ft, housing 4,500 offices and roughly 65,000 buyers, makers and sellers under one roof.

Must Know

• Diamond parks are designated zones for cutting, polishing and trading diamonds, distinct from natural diamond-mining sites.
• Surat, in Gujarat, is India’s main diamond-processing hub, handling roughly 90% of the world’s diamond cutting and polishing.
• The Surat Diamond Bourse is the world’s largest office building by floor area, at over 7 million sq ft.
• Office units inside the Bourse range from 28 square metres to as large as 7,000 square metres, consolidating buyers, makers and sellers in one location.
• This is distinct from natural diamond-deposit geology, like the Vindhyan or Panna diamond fields. Diamond parks process stones, they don’t mine them.

Good to Know

• The Bourse’s 4,500 offices can function both independently and as a single consolidated trading complex.
• India’s diamond-processing dominance also extends into lab-grown diamonds, where domestic manufacturing has grown significantly in recent years.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which Indian city processes roughly 90% of the world’s polished diamonds?

Surat

Mumbai

Ahmedabad

Jaipur

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Great to Know

• A 90% global processing share, without owning the underlying diamond deposits, shows how a country can dominate an industry’s value-adding stage even without controlling the raw material itself.
• Building a single facility to house 65,000 people from a fragmented industry reflects a deliberate consolidation strategy. It concentrates buyers and sellers to reduce transaction friction industry-wide.
• Surpassing the Pentagon in floor area makes a genuine symbolic statement. It signals the scale India’s diamond trade has reached, well beyond just its raw processing volume.
• India’s parallel rise in lab-grown diamond manufacturing suggests the country is positioning itself across both traditional and emerging segments of the same broader industry.