NTB ready to become world-class center for pearls
Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram | Sat, 05/15/2010 7:53 AM | The Archipelago A | A | A |
A successful pearl exhibition held recently in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) has made the local administration optimistic it can turn the province into an international center for pearl production, but local producers say major measures must be taken to protect the local industry from foreign imports.
Head of the province's Marine and Fisheries Agency, M. Ali Syahdan, said the large sales revenue booked during the Lombok Sumbawa Pearl Festival last week was proof the province was a top production center for quality pearls.
At least 75 kilograms of pearls were sold during the festival, not including a delayed order for 100 kilograms of pearls. The exhibition reaped Rp 22 billion in revenue from sales.
"This proves that NTB pearls are attractive to the international market," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said that currently there were at least 36 pearl producers operating in the province's two largest islands - Lombok and Sumbawa.
Of those, he continued, four were foreign companies, 16 were local companies and the rest individual producers.
Total pearl farming area in the province covers 600 hectares, and annual production ranges between 600 and 800 kilograms, 90 percent of which is destined for export.
"With this kind of potential, we believe it is just a matter of time before we can turn NTB into a world-renowned pearl production center," Syahdan said.
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said at the opening of the pearl festival last week that NTB deserved to be known as a world-class pearl hub.
Syahdan said his office would involve coastal communities in the region to boost production.
The office, he said, also planned to distribute pearl oyster seedlings to communities for them to cultivate this year.
He said the communities could then sell the pearls to companies when the oysters were ready to be harvested.
"This is one of our strategies to increase production," Syahdan said.
Syahdan said that next year the administration would hold an international pearl auction in Lombok that would adopt a concept used in Japan and that would attract international and domestic buyers.
The auction, which will also involve the Association of Indonesian Pearl Cultivation (ASBUMI) in Jakarta, aimed to increase the price of pearls produced in Indonesia, especially in NTB, he said.
The province has long sought to become a world-class pearl-production hub. The administration has said that achieving status this would boost tourism to the province. The local administration is gearing up for a big drive to popularize the province as a tourist destination with the Visit Lombok Sumbawa 2012 program, which targets to attract 1 million tourists that year.
However, the administration's optimism was not echoed by local pearl producers and traders, who said that unclear policies on sea borders, high taxes and a large number of imported freshwater pearls flooding the local market were hurting the local industry.
Muhammad Happy Akbar, the director of pearl production company PT Karna Ananda Mutiara, said the administration had sought since 2004 to turn the province into a highly regarded pearl hub.
"But the provincial administration pretty much has done nothing *since 2004*," he said, adding that business in that year had been the best in recent memory. He said the administration's recent pledge to improve matters was made in good faith, but that the timing was wrong.
Happy said that large quantities of freshwater pearls coming from China and Pakistan were flooding the province's market.
Freshwater pearls are similar to seawater pearls in terms of size, color and texture, but are far cheaper, Happy said.
One freshwater pearl, he said, usually fetched about Rp 10,000 on the local market, but a seawater pearls could be priced at Rp 1 million.
"This situation is damaging the pricing system," he added.
The province's waters are suitable for breeding Pinctada maxima oysters, which produce bronze, emerald or metal-colored pearls.
"In other waters, similar oysters can only produce gold or white *pearls*," Happy said.
Another pearl producer, PT Lombok Mutiara, suffered during the crisis, when pearl prices plummeted and sales numbers decreased.
"Normally, the price of a 3.75 gram pearl is *6,000 *Rp 590,000*. But the price dropped to only *2,000 during the crisis. Because of this, we could not cover our production costs," Yohana, the company's director, said.
Syahdan said the administration planned to issue a regulation requiring certification for pearl producers to limit trade of imported pearls.
Pearl production in the province had decreased significantly last year due to the global crisis, leaving only four of 36 companies still operating with a combined output of about 200 kilograms of pearls that year.
"We're optimistic pearl production will return to normal this year," Syahdan said.
