Chanthaburi
Thailand's gem-processing capital since the 15th century—mines depleted but 80% of colored gemstone exports still cut here. Also Thailand's durian heartland.
Chanthaburi has traded gems since the 15th century, outlasting the depletion of its own mines through a remarkable pivot: when local rubies and sapphires ran out, the expertise remained. Today, 80% of Thailand's colored gemstone exports are cut and treated here—stones imported from Myanmar, Cambodia, and beyond, processed by skills accumulated over 600 years. The International Chanthaburi Gems & Jewelry Festival 2025 drew traders from China, India, and Europe, generating over 100 million baht in five days.
The province demonstrates that niche specialization transcends resource availability. Like an enzyme that processes whatever substrate arrives, Chanthaburi's lapidaries transformed from miners to middlemen without losing market position. Thailand's gems and jewelry exports hit $14 billion in the first half of 2025—an 85% increase—with Chanthaburi central to that surge.
But gems share the economy with fruit. This is Thailand's most productive durian province; mangosteen and rambutan orchards carpet the eastern hills. Perhaps more surprising: 95% of Thailand's pepper grows here, generating 30-60 million baht annually from a spice the Portuguese once killed for. Chanthaburi's dual economy—high-value processing and tropical agriculture—creates resilience through diversification. The gems could vanish entirely and the province would survive on fruit; the trees could fail and the gems would sustain it. Redundancy isn't planned here; it evolved.