Information on Pearl Production

To analyze the pearl production figures with any certainty is quite difficult. It is also difficult to assess accurately the situation and it is cannot be easily accounted for the trading practices used in the informal sector for example the salesmen who tour the islands. The Customs Office is the only source of overall information which is liable to provide some idea of the total output because all the ongoing transactions are handling by the Customs Office. In between the year 1970-80, the first experiments carried out to encourage pearl growers to invest in this activity, and they were amply rewarded as from 1990-92, when an unprecedented report occurred on the market. Thereafter, from 1993 to 1998, it was increased to 6 tonnes per annum which shows that the production increases to one tone a year.

In between the year 1998 to 1999, it roses from Polynesia from 6.1 to 8.6 tonnes of the total amount of crude pearls exported which amounts to a 40% increase. Earlier, the Japan is the only country that engaged in production of pearls and after being monopolized for a long period, the pearl production has been becoming an increasingly international activity during the last ten years or so such as Australia, China, The Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand are also began to produce very large quantities of different kind of pearls through different process. Australia produces by using its own technology that is White South Sea Pearls. China began to produce very large quantities of white called as Akoya pearls. The Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand are the small scale producers named as Black South Sea Pearls.