Farm Life: Yuichi Nakamura, CEO, PJ Nakamura International in Japan
Apr 27, 2021
Written by Jennifer Heebner
Filed under pearl, pearl farm, pearl farmer, pearl jewelry, pearls
Discussion 1 comment

Farm Life: Yuichi Nakamura, CEO, PJ Nakamura International in Japan

From the April 2021 issue of #thisispearl digital magazine

The owner of a wholesale pearl operation in Tokyo travels to Japanese pearl farming regions and learns how the pandemic has affected operations.

Hello, friends!

Unlike numerous farm operations around the globe, most Japanese akoya pearl farms haven’t been affected health-wise by the coronavirus pandemic. Many akoya pearl farms are located in the countryside near my hometown of Shima-city Mie, a region in the mid-southern portion of Japan on the Pacific Ocean. Covid-19 cases in Shima-city in 2020 were close to zero, according to reports released in 2021. This meant that our seeding and production were not affected. Everyone has just been wearing masks. I heard the story is the same in other pearl-producing regions, such as Ehime and Nagasaki.

We all know, though, that the coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on the world market. The export business, for example, has always been highly dependent on Hong Kong, where as much as 80% of all pearl business occurred. Since Hong Kong jewelry shows were canceled last year and both in-person transactions and products were limited, the exporting of pearls was severely damaged.

Pearl harvests in Japan were delayed. They usually start in November—auctions take place from December to February—but pearl farmer associations canceled all auctions from December 2020 to the end of February 2021. Also, online auctions have been difficult for both buyers and sellers because inspecting akoya goods through images and videos has obvious challenges. I know some farmers of white and black South Sea pearls have introduced online auctions, but who can check 3–4 mm akoya pearls online?

Auctions were postponed for two reasons. First, considering the market situation, the consumption of pearls dropped because of diminished 2020 business. Second, after the government declared a state of emergency in January, farmer associations followed the guidelines, avoiding domestic travel and mass gatherings. Ultimately, some farmers harvested pearls in December 2020, and some did so in January 2021.

On March 14, the auctions finally began as the state of emergency was eased in many cities in Japan.

Another challenge that some farmers reported in 2019 is oyster mortality, especially among baby oysters. In 2020, as summer landed, some mortality was reported again. This might cause some shortages of oysters for grafting.
The cause of this mortality is still unknown. One hypothesis is global warming. We believe that global climate change is affecting the worldwide pearl industry. We would like to hear if there are any such phenomena in other regions.

Oddly enough, water that is “too clean” has been an issue. The local government and pearl farmers have been struggling to clean up seawater, but as it became cleaner, it caused a shortage of food for oysters. Farmers and local governments are making some attempts to enrich the water, including recreating tidal lands lost to expanding civilization and modernization.
Another concern is higher water temperatures. To combat this issue, farmers have been adjusting their cultivation methods to adapt to the new conditions. This will affect future supply of akoya pearls, especially larger sizes, which has been healthy in recent years. I suspect those days will be over soon, though, and supplies of larger akoyas will be much less for a few years. Twenty years ago, akoya farmers overcame high mortality issues, and I believe they will conquer this situation again.

A more specific outlook for 2021 is tough to predict. Last year, 12,397 kg of akoya pearls were sold through auctions. This number is for all of Japan. Since auctions just resumed for this year, we don’t yet how the numbers look.

Best, Yuichi

Many akoya pearl farms are located in the countryside near my hometown of Shima-city Mie, a region in the mid-southern portion of Japan on the Pacific Ocean.

Many akoya pearl farms are located in the countryside near Shima-city Mie, a region in the mid-southern portion of Japan on the Pacific Ocean.

Japanese pearl harvesting

Akoya pearl oysters

Farm Life: Alexander Collins Pearls in Takaroa, French Polynesia
Apr 02, 2021
Written by Jennifer Heebner
Filed under Alexander Collins Pearls, Collins Pearls, French Polynesia, pearl, pearl jewelry, pearls, Tahitian pearls

Farm Life: Alexander Collins Pearls in Takaroa, French Polynesia

From the February 2021 issue of #thisispearl digital magazine

Farm Life

Alexander Collins Pearls in Takaroa, French Polynesia

The founder of a small Tahitian pearl farm talks tiny pearls and difficulties working with Mother Nature.

Hello, friends.

Pearl farming in an average year is not easy, but factor in a pandemic and the challenges are even greater. The most significant direct impediment for our farm in Takaroa, which is an hour-plus flight from Tahiti, was the lack of Chinese technicians and grafters who got stuck—and still are—in China after the 2020 Chinese New Year. As a result, our grafting output diminished by 80%. Plus, one of our main platforms for sales are the Hong Kong fairs, and they have all been canceled. To save money, we severely reduced our fuel consumption and rely almost solely on solar power.

Collins Pearls Tahitian pearls in French Polynesia

And while most farms in Tahiti can rely on catching wild oysters for the culturing process, our farm in our atoll of Takaroa is still reeling from an ecological incident that started in 2014 and lasted through the end of 2015: a total lagoon invasion of microplankton, which turned our whole ecosystem upside down. The event killed all of our second-graft oysters, 60% of our first-graft oysters, and all the spat. The pearl colors and quality changed as well because the oysters weren’t healthy; the pearls were a washed-out gray or black with no peacocks, blues, or greens.

Collins Pearls Tahitian pearls in French Polynesia

Plus, many species of fish and mollusks disappeared, while others prospered. One of the species of fish that prospered is the blowfish, with a powerful beak and jaws. The particularity of this fish is that it primarily consumes shellfish and mollusks; the larger the blowfish are, the more they can eat and the larger the oysters they can consume. Blowfish quickly devoured all the oysters that our lagoon produces. Added to that, hungry deep-sea sharks now freely roam the interior, which makes spearfishing a risky proposition.

Because of this event, we go the neighboring Island of Takapoto, which does not have that problem, to buy viable oysters. It’s a two-hour trip in the open ocean.

Collins Pearls Tahitian pearls in French Polynesia

And though we harvest year-round, with wild oyster collecting typically happening from October to December, the cycles have clearly changed, and the oyster is readapting to its modified environment. I think it will take some time to renormalize; the last time we collected plentiful oysters in our lagoon was in 2011.

To combat the grafter shortage, we luckily had the foresight to train locals, so now we rely solely on them. Plus, our grafters require even more special training than at other Tahitian pearl farms because of our specialty—tiny 5 mm to 7 mm Tahitian pearls. This has been our specialty since 2013, when we were producing so many pearls that we ran out of mature oysters to graft.

At that time, we were faced with an unprecedented decision: stop grafting for three months (until age-appropriate or 9- to 10-centimeter oysters could be found) or graft smaller Tahitian pearls. This meant we needed not only smaller nuclei but also smaller knives and pincers (used to prop open oysters during nucleation), among other tools. It was a bittersweet move, but buyers ended up loving the tiny pearls! But now, niche aside, we’re in a tight spot because of lack of production and trade shows at which to sell.

Back in 2000, I was able to collect at least 1.5 million spats and was able to bring them to viable and usable sizes of great quality. At the height of our production in 2011, we were putting out 250,000 viable pearls to market every year. We are now barely producing twenty thousand pearls.

In the fall of 2020, I was able to take a trip to Europe, the U.S. and Mexico, so I was able to sell some pearls, but other than that, the 2021–2022 harvest is looking bleak. Pearl farming is dealing with nature, a fickle master. And when she wants to, she can erase in one single stroke a lifetime’s worth of work. Pearl farming is hard.

All the best, Alex

Reach Collins at adcdcs@yahoo.com.

Farm Life: Paspaley in North Western Australia
Apr 01, 2021
Written by Jennifer Heebner
Filed under Paspaley, Paspaley pearls, pearl, pearl farm, pearl farmer, pearls

Farm Life: Paspaley in North Western Australia

From the December 2020 issue of #thisispearl digital magazine

Farm Life: Paspaley in North Western Australia

Michael Bracher, executive director of Paspaley Pearls, weighs in on an unprecedented year in Australian pearling

Dear friends,

What a year it’s been! The markets were virtually closed for a good part of the year, Paspaley had significant staff costs in the remote regions of Australia, and Covid-19 presented some significant practical challenges in the early months. But our technicians and fleet crew went the extra mile this year and we are very grateful to them.

Paspaley pearl farm

Thankfully, Covid was our only big obstacle this year! Australia’s state and international borders were closed with little notice, and some of our usual flight routes were canceled. Our Japanese pearl technicians had to leave Japan and their families one month earlier than usual and spend two weeks in quarantine in both Sydney and Darwin. We spent weeks to get an exemption to allow our farm staff to travel between the Northwest Territory and Western Australia borders. Once the season started, our fleet stayed at sea until its completion. This ensured that our work sites remained Covid-free, but it was a big commitment from our staff, who are accustomed to having some fun in town after long stretches at sea.

Our farms are located across more than 1,000 km of Australia’s northwest coastline. From March to June, our dive ships are working on the historic 80 Mile Beach pearling grounds, which are about 100–150 nautical miles south of Broome. From May to September our operations ships are located at our various pearl farm sites in Broome, Kuri Bay, Osborne Islands, and the Vansittart region. We also have ships and crew permanently located at these sites. Ships not required for operations return to Darwin for the off-season and refit.

Paspaley pearl ship

All of our pearl technicians are Japanese and must undergo years of training on other types of shell before graduating to Australian South Sea oysters. South Sea oysters are sensitive creatures that are easily stressed and susceptible to mishandling. We use predominantly wild oysters that are expensive to fish and not available in unlimited numbers.

Paspaley diver holding a wild oyster

The pearling season from March through June went well. The fishing grounds were in excellent shape, the oysters were in perfect health, and Paspaley was able to collect wild oysters in optimal size ranges. The number of oysters that can be collected is set by the Department of Fisheries and can vary significantly from year to year. The wild population is assessed each year, and catch numbers are set at levels that ensure long-term sustainability of the fishery.

This year’s harvest was fantastic, about 5 percent larger in volume and slightly higher in quality. The areas in which we operate are remote and pristine, and Paspaley goes to a lot of effort ensuring they stay that way. We are still grading our most recent harvest, which will be sold next year through various distribution channels, including our auctions, privately to leading jewelry manufacturers and retailers, and through our own retail division in Australia.

Paspaley pearls

Paspaley conducted its first online pearl auction in March to service the trade during restricted travel and has held one each month since. The auction platform included photographs and videos of every lot and an online bidding service. This allowed our U.S. customer base to follow the market without physically attending the viewing of lots in Hong Kong and Japan.

We offered a relatively small amount of stock in the first few auctions but gradually increased the offering as the market strengthened. Each auction outperformed the previous one. This is partly a reflection of the rebound in demand, but it also reflects the wholesale market’s increased confidence in the stability of price and supply of high-quality Australian pearls.

This year has delivered an incredible harvest in spite of the challenges and turmoil going on in the world. In contrast to what was happening in human society, the ocean, the tides, and the oysters kept doing what they do: producing these beautiful marvels of nature. There is something comforting in knowing that. It makes me feel that no matter how bad situations get, things will eventually get back to normal. All the more reason that we should respect and care for Mother Nature.

Until next time,

Michael