Nicholas Paspaley (Executive Chairman, Paspaley Pearling Company Pty Ltd, Australia) writes:
Over the last 50 years, the cultured pearl industry has undergone a significant transformation. It has changed from a period when Japanese and (later) South Sea cultured pearls were effectively the only cultured pearls in the marketplace to the situation today, where there are a large variety of cultured pearls available from many different localities and of many different types.
In the pre-culturing era, all oceanic (saltwater) pearls were classified as Oriental pearls, and South Sea pearls fell into this generic category. With the advent of pearl culturing, however, pearls became more accurately known for the type of oyster that produced them and the region in which those oysters grew—hence the term South Sea pearls.
Naturally occurring pearls from the Pinctada maxima oyster native to the South Seas have been traded for thousands of years. But in past centuries, many natural South Sea pearls were undoubtedly traded simply as Gulf pearls. Because of its spectacular nacre, the South Sea pearl oyster historically has produced some of the most significant natural pearls in the world. Therefore, it follows that this oyster ahs the ability to produce magnificent cultured pearls as well.
However, the competition for market share between gem producers as well as between different pearl types is fierce. At the same time, there are significant gaps in the expertise required to grow pearl oysters and conduct pearl farming compared to many other fields of knowledge. There are very few experts today who have a broad knowledge on a comprehensive range of pearl and pearl farming issues.
The challenge for the South Sea cultured pearl industry today is twofold: to produce pearls of a superior quality, on the basis of which they can be differentiated in the wider pearl market, and to improve the level of knowledge and understanding of pearls in the marketplace.
Useful link:
www.paspaley.com
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