[Inside CIIE] Like Sapphires? Meet Sri Lanka, Country of Honor

It was more than 10 years ago, the first time I had gone to Colombo, the largest city in Sri Lanka. The air was smoky, the beaches were warm, and the people exceedingly polite. I was there just for a holiday, having no idea that it was a land famous for sapphires, coconut, cinnamon, vanilla and more.

Along with Canada, Sri Lanka is one of the two nations named "Guest Country of Honor" at this year's CIIE. Inside, we'll have a quick look at some of the products being pitched to China this year, some trade statistics, and a few words from Sri Lankan officials.

Ninth time, first time

Sri Lanka is not new to CIIE. This is its ninth time, which means it has shown up at every edition since the first one in 2018.

It is, however, the first time Sri Lanka has been a Guest Country of Honor. That gets you a bigger space, a better spot and a lot more people walking past your coconut oil.

The government brought everyone. The Export Development Board, the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the Coconut Development Authority, the Sri Lanka Handicrafts Board and the National Gem and Jewellery Authority all share the Country Pavilion. Over in the enterprise pavilion there are 16 more Sri Lankan companies: 12 in food and agriculture, four in gems and jewelry.

The slogan on the walls is "Your Vital Island." It is on every wall. You will not forget it.

The trade

China is Sri Lanka's biggest trading partner. In 2025, total trade between the two came to US$5.46 billion, just ahead of India at US$5.42 billion, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. A US$40 million lead. A photo finish.

Sri Lanka's exports to China grew 10 percent last year, to US$278.58 million, according to Sri Lanka Customs figures, published by the Export Development Board. China is its ninth biggest export market, and the EDB clearly thinks there is room to climb.

So what does Sri Lanka ship? Tea and coconuts, mostly, in forms you might not expect. Bulk tea was the top item in 2025 at US$42.99 million. Second was activated carbon, a filter material made from burnt coconut shells, at US$38.82 million. That number nearly doubled in two years. Third was coco peat, ground husk that greenhouses use instead of soil, at US$14.62 million.

The coconut, it turns out, is doing a lot of the work.

Tea

First, the leaf. Sri Lanka exported 257.44 million kg of tea in 2025 and earned more than US$1.5 billion doing it. China took 10.42 million kg, about 4 percent, down 9.9 percent on the year. Chile passed it. Chile.

One thing to know before you buy. The lion on the box means something. The Sri Lanka Tea Board only allows its Lion logo on packs that are 100 percent Ceylon tea, packed in Sri Lanka. A blend that is 95 percent Sri Lankan doesn't qualify. Neither does pure Ceylon tea packed in Shanghai.

Lions Tea

Not to be confused with the logo, though the name doesn't hurt. Lions Tea's factory sits near the Sinharaja rainforest, in the low-grown Ruhuna region in the south. It says it was the first company to get three stars under the Tea Board's quality management system. At CIIE it was pushing fruit tea, in tins painted with strawberries. That is the value addition Apsara was talking about, in a tin.

Impra

Impra is the big one. Its maker, Imperial Tea Exports, was founded in 1994 outside Colombo and has been one of Sri Lanka's top 10 tea exporters since 1998. It sells in more than 50 countries. It also has a joint venture in China, so this is less an introduction than a return visit.

The display was a wall of flavored black teas in bright boxes. Every box had the same sticker: 25 plus 5 free.

Dwind's

I couldn't find much on Dwind's. The tin says it is from Uda Pussellawa, a mountain range east of Nuwara Eliya. The Tea Board's tasting note for the region is two words: "exquisitely tangy." It also says the cold at the end of the year adds a hint of rose.

Reignite

Reignite is an energy drink that gets its caffeine from Ceylon tea instead of a lab. It is sparkling and fermented, and comes in ginger and cinnamon, two things Sri Lanka grows well. A 250ml can costs US$1.75 on Kapruka, a Sri Lankan delivery site. That's about 12 yuan.

Selling tea as an energy drink in China is an interesting bet. China already knows tea. It just hasn't met this one.

If you are interested in importing or partnering, their contacts are below.

Coconut

Sri Lanka is the world's fourth largest exporter of coconut products. Coconut exports passed US$1 billion in 2025 and now make up 7.2 percent of everything the country sells abroad. Desiccated coconut, the dried shreds in your macaroons, was first made in Colombo in 1891.

Supreme Agro

Supreme Agro does coconut in most of its forms: desiccated, milk, oil. The bag on the table was medium grade, 300g, with no sweeteners, preservatives or coloring added. A bowl of the stuff sat beside it, in case anyone needed to see what coconut looks like.

If you are interested in importing or partnering, their contacts are below.

Nutrinuts Coco

Coconut sugar is sap from the coconut flower, boiled down until it crystallizes. It tastes a bit like caramel. Nutrinuts Coco is made by Ceylon Coco Infresh, a processor in Sri Lanka's Coconut Triangle, the belt north of Colombo where most of the island's coconuts grow.

What stood out was the packaging. Light and dark, 250g bags, and the front is almost all Chinese. Somebody did their homework before getting on the plane.

Tesaro

Tesaro Exports bottles two coconut oils, pure white and extra virgin, with the labels already translated. Both were solid in the bottle. Coconut oil sets below about 24 degrees Celsius, and an exhibition hall in November is cooler than that.

Apsara, for the record, thinks coconut oil is "the best oil for consumption." That is a position. She holds it firmly.

If you are interested in importing or partnering, their contacts are below.

Spices

Sri Lanka supplies only about 2 percent of the world's pepper. Its pitch is piperine, the compound that makes pepper bite. Ceylon pepper is high in it, and sells at a premium because of it.

Cinnamon is the bigger story. Sri Lanka produces the large majority of the world's true cinnamon. In 2022, Ceylon cinnamon became the country's first product with an EU Geographical Indication, joining names like Champagne and Parmigiano Reggiano on the EU's protected list. And the EDB says Ceylon cinnamon is now cleared for export to China.

MeCeylon

MeCeylon sells Ceylon black and white pepper in 50g grinders, Chinese labels on. It is the kind of product that goes straight onto a supermarket shelf. That's the point.

AMRO

AMRO had cinnamon sticks, cinnamon powder and black pepper in plain jars, labeled in English and Chinese. Here is how to tell true cinnamon from cassia without a lab. Ceylon quills are thin and papery, rolled in many layers, like a cigar. Cassia is a single thick curl of bark, hard enough to hurt you.

Rancrisp

Rancrisp started on April 6, 1981, when Eden Thamel went into the cashew business near Colombo. His son Samantha runs it now. It says it is the only cashew processor in Sri Lanka with ISO certification for cashew products.

The cashews come from all over the island's dry zone, from Puttalam to Batticaloa. The cassava for its chips comes from farmers in Gampaha. On the shelf: deviled cashews, fried with chili, plus cassava chips in original and hot and spicy.

Sadaharitha

Sadaharitha Agri Farms & Exporters is the export arm of Sadaharitha Plantations, which is, of all things, a forestry company. It sells people trees as an investment. Since 2011 it has also been shipping fruit, vegetables and spices.

Here it had Ceylon pineapple in 720ml jars, rings and chunks, plus pink pepper and vanilla extract. In 2024, Sri Lanka won clearance to export fresh pineapples to China, its second fruit to gain access after bananas.

Then the vanilla. Someone held up two cured pods, long, black and oily. Vanilla is an orchid. Outside its native Mexico, every flower has to be pollinated by hand. That is why it costs what it costs.

Masks

In the Country Pavilion hang carved, painted wooden masks, the kind used in folk drama and healing rituals in Sri Lanka's south. Bulging eyes, enormous teeth, cobras for hair. They are not subtle. They are not supposed to be.

The Sapphire Capital

Then Hall 5.1, gems and jade. The Sri Lankan booths here were packed. The banner reads "Sri Lanka: The Sapphire Capital," and under it are MNP Gems & Kasunro Jewellers, Khadijiah Gems and others.

The numbers. Sri Lanka earned US$334 million from gems, diamonds and jewelry in 2025, according to the EDB. Sapphires are about 85 percent of its gem exports. The EDB wants US$1 billion a year by 2030.

One awkward fact. The EDB itself says around 70 percent of the stones Sri Lanka exports were mined somewhere else. The real business is cutting, polishing, certifying and setting, which it says accounts for about 90 percent of export value.

The stones themselves are easier to understand. Trays of loose colored gems, tagged in tiny handwriting. Rows of star sapphires, cut as domes so a six-rayed star slides across the surface when the light moves. Two were brought out on a cloth for a closer look, one blue, one white, each bigger than a thumbnail. The tag on the blue one read 111.85.

I didn't ask the price. Some things you know you can't afford.

Ten years ago in Colombo, I knew none of this. Now I know about the sapphires, the cinnamon and the coconut sugar.