Surat
Surat cuts 90% of the world's diamonds by piece count—a metabolic concentration so extreme that disruption here ripples through every global jewellery market.
Surat processes roughly 90% of the world's diamonds by piece count. Nearly every diamond sold in a jewellery store anywhere on earth has passed through the cutting and polishing workshops of this Gujarati port city—a metabolic concentration so extreme that a disruption in Surat would ripple through Antwerp, Tel Aviv, and New York within days. The industry employs over 500,000 workers in the city, many from the Patel community whose diaspora networks connect Surat to diamond centres worldwide.
The city's diamond dominance is a founder effect that traces to the 1960s, when Surat's small-scale artisans began undercutting established Belgian and Israeli cutters by processing smaller, lower-value stones that larger operations deemed unprofitable. This niche construction—specialising in the market segment others ignored—gave Surat a cost advantage that proved self-reinforcing. As volume grew, infrastructure, training, and trade networks followed. Today Surat's diamond district handles stones of all sizes and values, having expanded from its initial niche into full-spectrum competition.
But Surat is not a one-industry city. Its textile industry produces over 40% of India's synthetic fabric, earning it a second title: 'Silk City.' The city's port, historically one of India's busiest during the Mughal era when it served as the primary maritime gateway, is undergoing expansion as a diamond and textile export hub. Surat's metro population has grown to roughly seven million, driven by migration from rural Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Odisha—a source-sink dynamic where the city's workshop economy acts as a labour attractor.
Surat's vulnerability mirrors its strength. A city that processes 90% of global diamond volume has enormous competitive exclusion power but also systemic fragility—a monoculture risk mitigated only partially by textiles. Lab-grown diamonds represent an emerging phase transition that could restructure Surat's entire value chain, forcing the organism to adapt or face the fate of every specialist overtaken by environmental change.