The jewellery manufacturing industry at present employs approximately 15,000 persons of which around 10,000 are registered individual craftsmen while the rest is employed in factories and workshops producing jewellery mainly for the export market. There may be around 1,500 unregistered employees working under registered craftsmen. About 60% of the jewellery workshops and craftsmen are located main
ly in the rural areas of Southern and Central provinces and in pockets in the North Western, Eastern and Northern provinces. 30% and 10% of jewllery workshop are located in suburban and urban areas respectively. The jewellery manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka mainly consists of three sectors such as manufacturing for exports, local market and tourists’ trade. Sri Lanka’s main markets for jewellery are Japan, Germany, USA, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. During recent times, silver jewellery studded with semi- particularly moonstones and low quality precious stones have gained popularity. A large number of traditional jewellery have adapted themselves to producing modern designs particularly for the German market. Jewellery design and manufacturing have undergone a lot of changes during the past few decades. The use of computer software to create modern designs and casting jewellery for bulk production has come to play a major role in the jewellery industry.
