Submitted by PerlemeisterTake a look at what “the big boys” are going through. The portents for pearldom’s present and future are not especially auspicious.
Augury One: The 41st Shima Shokai Auction in Japan, held in November– once upon a time a well-attended and hot venue for overseas buyers– sold just 14% of the pearls on offer. Sales amounted to a measly ¥236 million/US$2.43 million (compared to ¥1.3 billion/US$13.4 million the year before). Usually 90-100 or more buyers attend; this year there were less than 60-70. And only a few of them (3 or 4 was the report) were from outside Japan. The average price of goods sold was ¥7,468/US$77 per momme, down a whopping 45%.
Augury Two: The 42nd Robert Wan Tahiti Perles Auction, held in Kobe on the heels of the Shima Shokai Auction, suffered similarly dismal results... so much so that the organizers refused to disclose the percentage of pearls sold. There were only 48 buyers, and a miniscule US$2.7 million dollars was garnered from the event. Average price per pearl: US$28.25. Average price per momme: US$47.58. And they thought 2002 was bad....
Augury Three: The 41st Paspaley Auction sold only 83 of 494 lots on offer (16.8%). Only 5.2% of the pearls offered found buyers. The average price per pearl sank to ¥5,597 (US$57.71), and the average price per momme was equally low: ¥7,468 (US$76.99)... an unusual fate for Paspaley goods. As with the other two auctions, all the organizers seemed to have withdrawn many of their goods, and buyers seemed to have shifted to lower-quality goods in response to weakened consumer demand.
Australia, historically one of the most stable of pearl producing areas (buoyed by the clout of the Paspaley organization), is suffering through an unprecedented downturn. Western Australia’s pearling industry — once worth $200 million or more a year — has been kneecapped with the slump in global pearl demand.
Producers say they are unable to get rid of millions of dollars worth of pearls as consumers have almost completely packed up and moved away from purchasing such luxury goods.
Clipper Pearls, one of the few remaining Western Australia-owned pearl producers, has had to lay off over 60% of its workforce since September. One of Clipper’s owners said orders had virtually evaporated overnight when the global financial crisis took hold in September. “This [is] easily the worst conditions we have ever faced,” he said.
Not being able to sell their overstock of pearls is sure to see smaller producers go out of business. A top regional executive phrased it succinctly: “Pearling is in diabolical trouble.”
And this malaise is in only one portion of the pearl world.
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Please update us.
How are online sales going?
Things could be worse.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/archives/2009/01/one_retailers_h.html
It appears that the retail side is getting hit the hardest and Internet sellers are capitalizing on the downturn.
I am still optimistic I will find a job in the gem and jewelry industry.
Of course you will. Things are tough now but they won't be forever.
I have been planning to migrate when they announced that the US is in recession and weeks later it affected almost all countries and almost any business.
Some says the demand and price for gems and gold increases bcoz they don't depreciate unlike the dollor while other's said that nobody can afford them so the price would drop in these hard times.
Then I told my father. There's still a market for luxury goods bcoz the rich, some people, even those who are affected in the crises would still buy beautiful things bcoz it gives them pleasure and they woudn't sacrifice their good taste.
Jewelry is the most beautiful investment. It has beauty, durabilty, art and value.
I think we can save on other things like not eating on Mc Donalds, walking instead of going to gyms and don't buy luxury leather goods bcoz they are overpriced for just a piece of common leather.
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