The King of Tonga

Submitted by "Perlemeister".

I was perusing some experimental pearls from harvests in Pohnpei the other day– lovely lighter hues of blues, grays and greens that are being deliberately sought after rather than the blacks and dark colors of traditional Tahitian SSPs– when I harkened back to days of yore when I first traveled through Micronesia, and penned this fond remembrance:

THE KING OF TONGA– all 400 rippling pounds of him– refused to stay overnight because he was afraid his waterbed would burst.

An Italian judge makes his way here every two years to play Arriverderci Roma on the bagpipes.

The bar, looking like a page out of Somerset Maugham, is named after a 19th Century castaway who managed to save his hide by dancing a jig and marrying the daughter of one of the island chieftains.

And the most prominent local resident is a camel-gaited Irish Wolfhound named Ossiferous who looks like Spanish Moss walking.

This cast of characters is headed by the Arthurs– Bob and Patti– who, dozens of years ago, succumbed to an unscratchable itch for adventure and abandoned their comfortable, workaday world of Southern California. For a full year they scoured the Pacific for the one perfect spot, found it on a tiny speck of land called Pohnpei located about halfway between Manila and Hawaii, and carved out what is, today, one of the most unusual stopping-off places in the whole Pacific.

The fruit of their labors is called The Village. You really can’t call it a hotel, although it’s listed that way in the guidebooks. It’s a place to relax, time sunsets, scuba in waters teeming with color and movement. To numb your mouth with sakau, visit a lost civilization and–above all– enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime brand of hospitality dished out by your hosts whose hero is, still, Robinson Crusoe.

If you’re looking for a place that’s nothing like a hotel, but wins awards for being one, it’s worth the time and effort to get here.

And be sure to look up Masahiro Ito of The College of Micronesia to see what these friendly folks are doing to build up a thriving cultured pearl industry in this magical setting.

The Lost Generation

This post was submitted by "Watcher".

I have noticed a trend around the world that I thought I would address. It is the second or sometimes third generations of families involved in pearls. The pioneering spirit that built some of the largest organizations in pearling seems to diminish in the DNA of their offspring. Not in all cases. But enough to make the point.

There are several examples of this through out the industry. From Australia to the US and to Japan. From Tahiti and in many of the markets around the world you can see this trend. The men and woman who built many of these companies were hard working people who had no idea if they would succeed. But they had drive and vision. In many cases that’s all they had. They had to deal with the stress of complete failure. And still stuck to their dreams. A pioneer spirit that created the business that we all enjoy.

I can show example after example of companies that start sliding backwards as soon as the children are handed the reigns. I don’t know if its because they haven’t wanted for anything in their lives. Or if that sort of drive isn’t in the DNA. But in the psychology of the originals. But its a sad thing to watch a dream diminish because of laziness or greed. I suppose you can’t learn this sort of internal fortitude. You either have it or you don’t.

I recently watched as a very old company involved in selling wholesale jewelry for generations complain about losing market share and price advantage to a new and fast moving online pearl presence. I couldn’t help but laugh at them as I assume their grandfather was doing from the grave. They got caught watching their business walking away. Did they decide to compete? No. The decided to whine like the lost generation they are. There are new people today with the same drive that inspired their parents. And they don’t know what to do about it.

Or you have other examples where the next generation only wants to do the fun jobs . They don’t want to get their hands dirty doing the hard work. They simply want to sip cocktails and hobnob with other perceived successful people. To them that is success. When in fact they couldn’t possibly build a business on their own from scratch. They would be completely lost if forced to provide for themselves. They are born in to a paint by numbers life. Everything laid out for them. And then they assume that that makes them artists.

Perhaps this trend isn’t exclusive to the pearl business. But this is the business we are in. And so it's where I focus my comments.

The World Pearl Forum Dubai, 2009

Dubai has done it! The Dubai Pearl Exchange (subsidiary of the DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre)) is hosting the mother of all pearl events, the world's first ever world pearl forum.

We are all aware that this area of the Gulf was once the pearl center of the world. This was replaced by gold in the last century, black gold that is. But a country with so much money and so much pride in its history is set to reclaim its pearly stature.

Leading up to this forum the DMCC has several initiatives underway:

Pearls of Arabia is a 6000-square-meter experience center on Antarctica created in association with Paspaley Pearling Company.

The Dubai Pearl Exchange, an exclusive trading platform for the pearl industry.

Pearl Essence, an international pearl jewelry design program specifically focused on pearls.

Not too shabby for a country that no longer produces pearls on a commercial scale!

The line-up of speakers is like the who's who of the industry.

Keynote address: Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman - Dubai World

Regional Pearling - History and Heritage

Gaiti Rabbani, Executive Director, Coloured Stones and Pearls - DMCC

Vision for the Pearls of the World

Nicholas Paspaley, Executive Chairman

Branding a Modern Classic - The South Sea Pearl

Robert Wan, Chairman - Robert Wan Tahiti

Polynesian Black Pearl - The Influence in Today's Market

Noriyuki Morita, President, K. Mikimoto & Co., Ltd.

'I would like to adorn the neck of all women in the world with pearls' - Dream or Reality?

Jacques Branellec, President - Jewelmer

The Golden Age of the Pearl

Justin Hunter, Founder - J. Hunter Pearls Fiji
A New Source of Black Pearl

Bill Reed - Managing Director, Linneys of Broome

Setting up and Sustaining a Pearl Farm

Jeremy Shepherd, President - PearlParadise.com

Double-digit Growth in Pearl Jewelry Online Sales - Opportunities in the New Economy

Jorg Gellner, Managing Director - Gellner

Redefining a Family Business to Meet Challenges of Today's Marketplace

Sonny Sethi, President - Cultured Pearl Association of America

Creating Demand for New Pearls

Kenneth Scarratt, Director of Research - GIA Thailand

Challenges of Creating a Universal Grading System

Robert Cepek, Managing Director, Iridesse

Success Story in Experiential Marketing and Retail

Rosario Autore, CEO and CFO - Autore
Celebrity Placement: Formula for Positioning Pearls

David Bennett, CEO, ME & Europe - Sotheby's

Natural Pearls - An Investment, Luxury or Both?

And a few others, but I am running out of space on this blog!

Wretched Excess, Part Two

Part two, submitted by Bafoon.

My mind is still boggling from a cursory, preliminary examination of The Queen of England’s Imperial State Crown and the pearls thereon. Not to be undone by her headdress, I then leered at at The Queen’s State cars: two Bentleys, three Rolls-Royces, three Daimlers, and a number of plebian Volkswagens.

They are painted in Royal Claret. The Bentleys and the Rollers do not have registration numbers, what we blokes call license plates, and have monologue construction (the transmission runs underneath the floor, without encroaching on the cabin).

The Bentleys are 20.5 feet long (6.22 meters for you Anglophiles) and have a longer wheelbase, and are driven by a standard, four speed General Motors gearbox. Despite their powerful engines, they are driven at between three-to-nine miles per hour. The doors are what we Americans call “suicide doors” (hinged at the back so The Queen may stand upright before exiting to the ground). [I had a suicide door Lincoln Continental many years ago, so called because in a crash the passengers in the rear seat usually spilled out with consummate ease, due to centrifugal forces; we used to see how fast we could drive it in unregulated Montana road speeds to visit Evil Knievel in Butte.]

Of the Rolls-Royces, there are a 1950 Phantom IV, a 1978 Phantom VI, and a 1987 Phantom VI. For her private use, The Queen (who has a valid driver’s license) drives a Daimler Jaguar Saloon or a Vauxhall Estate. Her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh, has a Discovery and a Metrocab. These private cars are appropriately painted Edinburgh green.

In charge of this fleet of automobiles is a team of eight chauffeurs, working out The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. These Royal cars must pay the Congestion Charge (owed by all automobiles operating in central London, road taxes, regular MOTs, and insurance. Some have been converted to run on LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

Air transport for the Royal Family is provided by No. 32 Squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF); chartered civilian aircraft; and occasionally scheduled commercial flights provided by British Airways. There are plans to acquire two dedicated executive transports for the use of the Royal Family, due to security concerns.

The Royal Train is the name given to the set of railway carriages dedicated for the use of the British Monarch, other members of the Royal Family, and their staff. The train currently consists of nine British Rail Mark 3 carriages. Two locomotives are designated for use on the train and painted in the claret livery of the royal household. The carriages may be used for other Heads of State, but they cannot be hired by private users (damn!). Train drivers are specially selected based on their skills, including the ability to make a station stop within six inches of the designated position.

The Royal Yacht, Britannia, was built by the folks who built the prestigious Cunard Queens, and was designed as a dual function vessel... both as a Royal Yacht in peacetime and as hospital ship in times of hostilities. Meticulous attention was paid to detail, such as a steel hull riveted, then machined flush above the waterline for an immaculate finish. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh took personal interest in the interior design, choosing unbelievably exquisite furnishings. Throughout the 43 years of active life, this craft steamed well over 1 million miles. In service, Britannia became a fitting symbol of Britain’s proud maritime heritage, and is now in retirement in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This all makes me feel like a piker. What a glorious toy collection! And all of it paid by the blood, sweat and tears of others, leaving one to ramble through various estates, castles and palaces while playing with her corgis. Much more fun, far less work (and yet with endless, numbing protocol) than being Paspaley, Tasaki or Wan.

Wretched Excess

Submitted by Bafoon.

I was minding my own business the other night when Barbara Wa-Wa Walters intruded onto my TV screen, rambling on in great admiration about the British monarchy.

Lo and behold! Up popped The Imperial State Crown, a 12.4 inch (31.5cm for you foreigners) monstrosity weighing almost two and a half pounds (0.91kg), set with over 3,000 precious stones and (believe it or not) some 281 pearls.

Four of the so-called “great pearls” are dropped from the arches of the crown, and are said to have belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, purchased by Elizabeth I for 12,000 crowns (five of which equaled £1 in the olden days). If you are very curious, those 600 pounds would be worth well over 150 times the value of the pound today... or some US$651,600 by my mental abacus). Four pearls at over US$163,000 each in the 1600’s makes Paspaley’s best these days seem more like Chinese freshwaters.

As if this were not enough, this crown features a great red spinel named The Black Prince’s Ruby acquired by Pedro the Cruel after the Battle of Najera in 1367, said to look “like a large clot of congealed blood,” about 1-1/2 inches wide. This bauble was carried by Richard III in his coronet at the Battle of Bosworth Field. When Richard was killed during the fighting, the ruby rolled under a hawthorn bush, to be retrieved by Lord Stanley and placed on the head of the victorious Henry Tudor. Which, obviously, gave birth to the saying: “To the victor belongs the spinel.”

Not to be outdone, this crown also hosts The Second Star of Africa (cut from the great Cullinan Diamond) weighing 317.4 carats, the second largest diamond in the world. Towards the rear of the crown is The Stewart Sapphire weighing 104 carats. The St. Edward’s Sapphire, set in the Maltese Cross on the monde, is thought to have been worn by Edward the Confessor, and removed from his tomb at Westminster Abbey.

Added to the panoply of this Imperial State Crown, made in 1838 for the coronation of Queen Victoria and modified in later years for the coronations of King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth in 1953, is an immodest collection of additional bling totaling four other rubies, eleven other emeralds, fifteen other sapphires, 273 other pearls (one a Welsh river pearl found in the River Conway) and some 2,868 diamonds.

If this isn’t mind-boggling enough, there are other crowns available to be worn. The Imperial Crown of India is one of the heaviest, sporting more than 6,000 diamonds. Heavier yet (weighing almost five pounds and extremely difficult to balance on one’s head) is the St. Edward’s crown, made of gold with 444 precious stones; this headgear must be worn for most of the coronation ceremony (hence, longer-lived monarchs and fewer coronations).

The Queen Mother’s Crown, made for Queen Elizabeth as queen consort in 1937, contains the famous Koh-I-Noor Diamond, once the largest known diamond in the world, also referred to as the “Mountain of Light.” Originally belonging to various Indian and Persian rulers, legend says its male owners will suffer misfortune and death, but the women who possess it will rule the world.

All this passed before my ken as I watched this elderly elegant woman, dressed in ermine with a long train hefted by four waifs (by law, having to be shorter than the monarch), totter towards the throne as Parliament convened. We rebellious Americans have made our coronations mercifully briefer, outdoors and with less pomp, albeit colder ‘midst January 2nd snow flurries.

Bafoon

The Titan?

I received an interesting post from someone with the moniker "Perlemeister" today. I think we may know this bloke from an earlier comment on the Chinese olympic post.

I’ve heard for quite some time now that Robert Wan, called “a titan in the industry” in so many recent posts, has been bypassing the GIE Perles de Tahiti and the Papeete inspection and taxation procedures for quite a while, flying certain qualities of goods directly from his main atoll to the Cook Islands, where he unloads quantities of his goods to be sold in Rarotonga under the guise of them being Cook Island black-lipped pearls.

Whether this is absolutely true or not, I honestly do not know.

But if it were true, what possible good were all the rules and regulations set up by the Tahitians (really mostly French expatriates; it is said those governmental satrapian bureaucrats get paid 150% more salary than they would normally be paid at the Quai d’Orsay as so-called “imminent danger pay”... the price of living in French Polynesia’s terrible conditions) if the major pearl producer in the region ignored them?

And, further, what good will reemploying any ignored regulations do for the Tahitian pearl industry?

These are the questions that plague mankind.... and the corrupt, supercilious French administration in Papeete, many of whom (from personal experience) feel that the angels come at night to take their merde away.

They are getting what they deserve, having cratered a once-thriving industry.

Perlemeister

GIE Perles de Tahiti is Gone!

Sad news today on the Tahitian pearl industry front. GIE Perles de Tahiti will cease to exist on September 30th.

What does this mean for the industry? Does this mean the tax-lift will become permanent? Does this mean dealers and producers are now on their own, left to promote Tahitian pearls as independents without the guidance of of the industry's promotional arm?

This is sad, sad news for the once great Tahitian pearl industry.

Why no link to the article today? Because this news has not been released yet. In fact, most in Tahiti do not yet know.

Two Shots of Black Pearl, Please

Another post by one of my favorite contributors, Olga Noitapitsnokovna

Even though I've been actively looking for a while now, and thought I would never find it---here it is in all its potential imbibing glory The Drink of The Tahitian Pearlmeister! "But what is a Tahitian pearlmeister?” you ask, let alone a drink for one. Well, there are supposedly some (one, or two, or three) in that paradisiacal land of black pearls, Tahiti. I don't know any of them personally, but if I did, there might be a chance I could actually get to taste some of this Louis XIII Black Pearls Cognac by Rémy Martin. If there ever was a better hypnotically mesmerizing label designed to attract Tahitian pearlmeisters who booze, then I dare you to show me one.

And what a bottle (obaldet!) it is! Made from Baccarat crystal, with a blackish silver hue to cunningly make it look like a black pearl, the concoction inside it is a combo of over one thousand eau-de-vie which have been aged for up to a century. Boy, what a way to get loaded! That's only if you can afford the price of course---$32,000.00 per gorgeous pearl-make-believe bottle! Sadly, this is not within my budget. Not even close. Olga is use to getting pearl necklaces from rich admirers but I think a $32,000.00 bottle of Black Pearls Cognac is just not going to happen any time soon. And if I want a taste of it on my own, I'll have to book a flight to NYC and drop into the Plaza Hotel for lunch-and-a-sip costing $3,200.00+. (That’s not counting the flight and a place to rest my pretty head, and trust me, it is a pretty one!)

Makes me think of how different things are here in America, today, as compared to Russia, yesterday. When I was young person still in Russia and modeling so that I could pay for school in order to get my PhD in Astrobiology, I use to pray every night for the necessities of life, "Dear God, please send us more bread and vodka tomorrow." Luckily, those days are long gone.

The gap between the rich pearlmeisters of the world and the average Russian has become a lot smaller. A lot of enterprising Russians have the ability to buy $32,000.00 bottles of cognac too now. Money---the great equalizer.

26 to None, Lebanon Takes the Lead

Just the other day, I came across this article about the wife of a Lebanese restaurateur who discovered 26 pearls in an oyster she was preparing for lunch. My initial reaction was to call bullshit and then check the Indian papers for any stories about our Anadaman friend Ajai Sonkar moving to Lebanon.

Well, I sure am glad I held my pen! The story may be true. A picture of the mollusk finally appeared today. While I can’t count 26 pearls there, someone with a microscope may have. There they are, all nestled in against the byssus threads like bubbles. The location seems strange, that’s sure. But from where I am sitting they look like they really could be pearls!

I don’t really know whether the shell is going to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records. Hell, the Chinese have shown us that a lot more than 26 pearls are possible. But natural pearls? That is a rare find indeed. Way to go Amal Salha of Lebanon!

It's a Pearl, It's a Brain, It's Super Pearl

Submitted by Olga Noitapitsnokovna

First of all, let me just say that after looking at the picture of this wonder for a few minutes, my first reaction was to want to stitch my eyelids together. But after the initial shock to my visual apparatus wore off, MY brain, started to look at THIS brain-shaped specimen, in a more objective way. Now doesn't this lump look a lot like another famous lump? That's right! The Pearl of Allah. Sure, this one is smaller, but you have to admit --- it is just as ugly. No, wait, technically the The Pearl of Allah is uglier because there is a lot more surface area that ugly can occupy.

So what it boils down to here is that we have five pounds of newly discovered ugly. The difference, besides weight, between this newer ugly lump and that older ugly lump, The Pearl of Allah, seems to be that this is some newer "natural" blister-pearl ugly, while that was some older "cultured" ugly (we all know that story was bullshit). I'm no big expert on ugly but in my opinion, the quality of of this particular ugly seems to be of equal magnitude in both of the lumps. Huh, how coincidental.

"This is clearly one of the most valuable pearls of its kind in the world today," said Bidwell---and therein those fine words lies the truth of the matter. Specifically the words, "of its kind". Now, where in the world has the lumpier and older Pearl of Allah gone to? What was the last price anybody paid for it? I always thought that value was determined by what someone agrees to pay for it. Oh yes, the Pearl of Allah was valued at astronomical figures, but no one ever bought it at those figures. Reminds me a little of quahog pearls and their purported value.

I too, wonder what kind of exciting future this nacreless five pound lump will have. In fact, I've already got an idea or two for its future, but lucky for it, I am not its owner. The Pearl of Allah faired pretty well, wherever it is. Can't say the same for the people who said they owned it, but maybe this new lump has much better mojo. Or maybe, just to be on the safe side, the thing to do with it is to house it in a museum display case somewhere, far away. Far, far away.

Taking No Chances, the UK Way

So we have all seen a bit of over-the-top security in our lives. You know what I’m talking about. There is always that one guy that tricks out his ’84 Volkswagen Jetta with a state-of-the-art alarm system, LoJack and the Club. Who wouldn’t want to go to prison for stealing a car with a Blue Book value of zip?

But what about the store owner who hires private security, hidden cameras, and has the police on speed dial because he sells lottery tickets? That would be taking paranoia to a whole – ‘nutha – level!

Well, leave it to the Brits to top our trailer-park Jetta boys!

Does anyone know how many Melo melo gastropods it takes to find one perfect pearl? Well let’s see! Melo melo is not a rare mollusk. But the pearls they produce are some of the rarest in the world. So what is the number? One in 10,000, maybe? Oh wait, I said a perfect pearl! Maybe one in 100,000.

Well that is a chance Grahame Burrows of an aquarium in Birmingham, UK is just not willing to take. He is so worried someone might steal his precious Melo melo he has had CCTV systems installed covering every access point into the aquarium, not to mention a sophisticated alarm system. This is the same Grahame Burrows that saved a couple of turtles from Smuggling Soup last May. The dude is a hero!

I do have to give Mr. Burrows credit, however. He does admit the chance of this snail having a pearl is a tad rare. I don’t think he needs all the surveillance equipment, though. I bet the guy never leaves the aquarium! Seriously! There is always the chance of getting struck by lightning or getting hit in the head by a meteor if he goes outside. But what about the crocodile attacks or chances of drowning if he stays inside. The poor guy must be a bundle of stress.

Give me a break!

Paspaley Follows Tahiti's Lead - NO MORE TAX!

This blog post was submitted by Olga Noitapitsnokovna

Crikey!!! There have been some famous Australians in the news lately. First, the ATO pursues "Crocodile Dundee" for back taxes, then the deceased "Crocodile Hunter's" Zoo, and now it is after Nicholas Paspaley of Paspaley Pearls for property back taxes amounting to 1.5 million on one of his luxury residences.

Paul Hogan's reaction was a defiant, "Come and get me you miserable bastards." What a brave guy! He's such a "character". Spoken like a true Aussie who is now living abroad in the US, and I take it, never intends to return to Australia.

But somehow, I can't picture Nicholas Paspaley saying something crude and impolite like that in public, at least not while he and his family are still living on- and-off at Ramona, his posh Sydney digs in question. Nope. He has instead, apperantly hired lawyers who specialize in litigation and is using the old and still popular, "trying very hard to confuse the taxman for 10 years or more" ploy. Hey, it works sometimes, for some people.

The part that has me scratching my head (it's a very nice head too), is that the Paspaleys paid 4.3 million in 1993 for a property that is now worth 8 million (and counting if you know anything about Sydney real estate prices) and the taxman is ONLY asking for a measly 1.5 million and ONLY for period between 1997-2007----SO WHAT'S THE BIG PROBLEM WITH PAYING THAT, dude?? Do the math! I mean, all you've had to do in the last ten years is to sit back poolside (there's always a pool) and drink all the martinis you've wanted (with maybe a little walk on the beach on the side (there's a beach at this one too)) and the taxes are paying themselves plus a nice profit is still being made to boot. You'd think that retaining a gaggle of spiffy (the only kind rich people hire and always more than one) lawyers for 10 years would have siphoned off more funds than the actual back taxes. Maybe that situation should be run by an accountant some time?

I don't know how Mr. Paspaley's tax woes are going to turn out. Maybe he will win his case. If not, I hope he's not going to be stubborn about it and stand on principle or something silly like that. He's not exactly prison material. I can't find any statistics about how rich and pampered Pearlmeisters fair in such environments. But I think he would agree with Conrad Black about how surprisingly uneducated the inmates are. If there is time, he might also have to modify his fencing lessons by learning how to wield a sharpened spoon instead of a sword or something. How bloody annoying. And where to find good martinis?

A very important and serious question this blog asks, though, is how does this reflect on Paspaley Pearls? And, is trying to save 1.5 million Australian property back taxes on a luxury residence that has appreciated a whooping 3.7 million in 14 years---and ultimately out of a total of the family net worth of $620 million, really a wise thing?

---Olga

A Woman of the People

I am not much for politics but this US presidential election has got me on the edge of my seat. It’s been all about pearls. Who is wearing the biggest? Who is wearing the best? Do they mean power, class and elegance, or is it just about sex?

Pearls are clearly bi-partisan this year. Hillary wears them, Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain, even Sarah Palin sported a maverick style of golden South Sea pearls during her speech.

After Cindy did her talking, a lot was published about her outfit. The *experts* all seem to think her outfit was valued around $300,000. The earrings alone are supposedly worth $280,000. Definitely a woman of the people; she does not look high-maintenance at all! But what about that pearl necklace valuation? I have seen $11,000, $15,000 and $25,000. Were we watching the same damn speech?

Cindy wore a 4-row necklace of what appeared to be large akoya pearls. They weren’t your grandma’s pearls. There was no graduation up the nape. Those were large pearls, at least 9 mm. So what’s the deal with all these experts and their math? Do you think she was wearing a freshwater strand of pearls or a discount strand of akoya? Not this down-home girl. She shops at Oscar de la Renta and wears Escada, Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera, Stuart Weitzman and Chanel and loves to fly on that private jet. I am going to go out on a limb here and say she likes expensive pearls as well.

So, four strands of pearls would calculate to about $2750, $3750 and $6250 per strand by those *expert* evaluations in the press. Now I’m no Oxonian math major, but that *expert* arithmetic seems a bit off. So what if the pearls a AAA Mikimoto and 8.5-9 mm? I think I am being conservative here. What does a strand like that cost? Last I checked it was around $70,000 per strand. She was wearing four of them.

If it were not for her new damn long-hair style we may have been able to see the clasp. I guess it never shows. Maybe it isn’t a diamond-studded, platinum behemoth. She is, after all, a woman of the people.

Who Says Pearl Farming Ain’t Profitable?!

Farmers of Tahitian pearls are in dire straits. Prices have fallen so low the FP is abandoning their tax for three months. Even this measure will do little for the industry overall considering half the Tahitians in Asia were never taxed upon export. How can a small producer compete with a large one that has the ability to fly low-grade or even high grade off the atolls directly to market? How long can farmers last with prices as low as they are for small goods?

The price of akoya in Japan dropped so low in 2008, it nearly on par with Chinese production. Farms are operating in the red. Nearly all the large farms have ceased production. Even the big players (Otsuki, et al.) are just buying at auction now. Nearly all farms are small, family-run operations that are living on loans and savings hoping to ride this dip out. It seems like there is no money left in the pearl farming game!

But no! That is not the case. There is still BIG money to be made.

The thing I love about publicly traded companies are their numbers. The numbers never lie. The numbers they report are the God’s honest truth. Take Arafura, for example.

Arafura tells is like it is. We learned from Arafura that Australia does depend on hatchery shell as well as wild catch. We learned from Arafura that the total quota is not used every year. This is not the tune of another private company down under. Sounds like there are some productions controls at work over there!

Arafura Pearls Holdings Ltd is a publicly traded South Sea pearl production company out of Australia. They control about 20% of the SSP market down under, and are second in quota size only to the great Paspaley. Arafura is reporting a net profit of $10.05 MILLION for the 2008 financial year. We are not talking straight sales here folks. That is NET PROFIT.

Well, how the hell can they do it?! Why are nearly all the other sectors of the production industry suffering so much?

It all comes down to control. Paspaley controls more than 50% of Australia’s output. They control the volume, many producers, and prices at auction, not to mention those per direct sale. The auction buyers are always bemoaning the “Paspaley Crazy Prices”. But they are buying! If Paspaley does not get what they think the pearls are worth, they pull them from auction.

Other producers love what Paspaley does. Why should they rock the boat? The Indonesians came out with cheap goods and started to make an undercut sweep, but they quickly learned the game, and the Philippines were already toeing the line behind Jewelmer. Now goods are mixed at auction and the prices are stable.

Some say “oh, look what the bad-old Paspaley is doing now.” Well shit, they may come off a little arrogant and high and mighty, they may piss off a lot of buyers, but damn it, South Sea pearls are here to stay. They are perfecting the method the Japanese created more than a half-century ago.

Will the Tahitians be able to pull it out and regain some of what they once had? Not unless they can find a hard-head like Paspaley and a hot-head like Kelly to captain the sinking ship – in my humblest opinion. The Japanese, well, they may already be too far gone.