Pearl Farmers Get Shelled

Pearl farming is the bedrock of the industry. The pearl industry exists on the passion and commitment to the work by pearl farmers. It is the most precarious, uncertain job of the industry. So why are pearl farmers always the ones to get shelled.

Pearl farmers are hurting. There are whispered stories of suicides in Japan where auction prices have been on continual decline for several years. Pearl farmers are pumping out more and more pearls, trying to make up in volume what they are losing in value, worsening the decline in prices.

China has been hit on two fronts; the akoya industry was nearly decimated two years in a row, and overproduction of freshwater pearls has pushed harvest-material prices to unsustainable lows. Today’s pearl farmer can make more profit farming rice instead of pearls.

In Tahiti, current market values do little to cover the cost of production. Prices have tumbled since 2006, with over-production in small sizes creating a glut of sellers while the economy is driving away the buyers. Desperate farmers are making their way to China, striking deals with pearl processors who’ve capitalized on the elimination of Tahiti’s export tax while capitalizing on farmer desperation. It is every man for himself. They are selling far below market value, worsening the slide. They are desperate and they are dealing with some of the world’s fiercest negotiators.

Well, apparently South Sea pearl farmers are no longer immune to the stomping and lack of appreciation the industry is so keen to show. Pearl farmers in Indonesia are going out of business. Two years ago pearl harvests sold at $20 per gram. Today, many farmers are only getting $5 to $8 per gram. What are they doing wrong? They trust the buyers. Many farmers in remote areas don’t know or completely understand the value of their harvest, and when larger buyers such as the giants from Japan or the Man Sang’s of Hong Kong tell them their pearls are only worth $5 per gram, they believe it. These buyers then turn around and sell the fruits of the farmers’ labor four to five times over cost – the real value.

I guess my biggest question is simply why? Is it just damn greed? When buyers buy below production cost, they set a standard. That standard is then forced on the rest of the producers. The processors in Kobe and Hong Kong get fat while the pearl farmers cannot feed their families nor sustain their dreams. Consideration for others and considerations for tomorrow would seem to go hand-in-hand, but foresight is not always coupled with common sense.