Govt Rejects Freshwater Pearl Imports

[KAC]

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The government has rejected the importation of low-quality freshwater pearls. The Maritime Affairs and Fishery Ministry will draft a regulation on the proposed ban which is expected to be issued in August, Victor Nikijuluw, the fishery product marketing and processing director general said last week.


The ban is seen as crucial as freshwater pearls are priced the same as expensive seawater pearls and businessmen can exploit the market. ?They lie to the customers, saying the pearls are from the Banda Sea, when in fact they are freshwater pearls,? said Victor.


Last year, pearls were US$5 per gram, and now they are US$ 16 per gram. The price increased because the association was unable to improve the quality of pearls. The three tons of imported pearls came from various countries, including China. The amount is half of the national production of 5.7 tons per year, 95 percent of which are exported.


Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister Fadel Muhammad says the local pearl business is promising. Last year, global trade in pearls was valued at US$ 1.5 billion but Indonesia only exported US$ 30 million. The most expensive type is the south sea pearl, of which Indonesia is the world?s largest producer.


If the import ban is effective, said Victor, there would no longer be low-quality pearls on the market. Although Indonesia controls 43 percent of the world production, this has not been followed by quality improvement. As a result, the price of Indonesian pearls in the international market is much lower than other countries, such as Australia.

Full Article:http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2011/07/18/brk,20110718-347067,uk.html

 

[Nerida]

Hmm, interesting on so many fronts....

The one I will dwell on here though is the recent posts here from someone who had been sold 'natural' pearls by local fishermen when the pearls were clearly very inexpensive CFWP...

43% of the world's market? Also interesting..

 

[jshepherd]

It is a problem consumers see all over the world. It's not specific to Indonesia. Just take a look at eBay and search for something like "akoya pearl necklaces," and try to find one necklace that is not a low-end freshwater being passed. The same thing happens with Tahitians and South Sea. I do wonder how they plan to stop low-grade imports. They haven't done anything in the past (that I know) to stem the export of low-grade South Sea.

Indonesia does produce more South Sea than anybody else, but the value of total production is about the lowest.

 

[KAC]

saying and implementing it are two very different things but it does at least show an understanding that quality is the way to go vs. quantity.

 

[KarinK]

Would this ban also be connected to the kasumi pearls? When we met at Pattey's we had a chance to compare the real kasumi with some strands of Chinese FW look-a-likes and the result was also scary. With some of them we could hardly see any difference at all.

- Karin