GIE Perles de Tahiti Fades A—w—a—y….

So my French is a little rusty, but I found this article from Tahiti Presse with the help of the ever-vigilant Effisk, that spells the doom and gloom going on at GIE Perles de Tahiti.

Although the planned dissolution of GIE at the last general meeting was postponed, GIE cannot make its commitments with Japanese, Chinese and American partners. They’ve got no money. The tax suspension was their main source of income.

Well that’s a surprise. In the US there is a history of continued spending when the money stops rolling in. I guess GIE doesn’t have the power to leverage the future of the industry and print their own francs.

So what’s new on the table? According to the same article there was a proposed merger of GIE Perles de Tahiti and GIE Tahiti Tourisme. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Tourism seems to be a pretty big deal in Tahiti, and tourists love to come home with their pearls and bottles of vanilla. But the liquidation of GIE is likely to kill that idea.

There is a new player, however, GIE PNPP (led by Alfred Porlier) is proposing a new GIE PDT-like setup. They would supervise production, marketing and promotion. This all sounds vaguely familiar. Sort of a same-face different-name approach. Advice to GIE PNPP if this ever does take off, history has a strange way of repeating itself unless one learns from earlier mistakes.