FRENCH POLYNESIA: Poe Rava Nui To Hold All 3 Of Next Year's Pearl Auctions In Hong Kong
Thursday: July 6, 2006
(Tahitipresse) - Poe Rava Nui has announced plans to hold all three of next year's auctions in Hong Kong, making 2007 the second straight year that none of the Tahitian cultured pearl farming cooperative's auctions will be held in Tahiti.
The announcement was made after Poe Rava Nui used "special prices" to sell 82% of its Tahiti cultured pearls during a June auction in Hong Kong, according to Jewellery News Asia (JNA) reports on the Hong Kong magazine's Internet website.
The four-day June auction marked Poe Rava Nui's debut in Hong Kong after traditionally holding 32 international auctions in Tahiti. The cooperative that represents mostly medium size pearl farms in French Polynesia moved its auction to Asia for the first time in February.
But the auction held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, on Mainland China only sold 63.3% of its 262 lots and 79.5% of its 157,616 Tahitian pearls put up for sale during the 33rd Poe Rava Nui Auction.
Poe Rava Nui has also announced it will hold its second auction in Hong Kong from Sept. 2-4 this year and will hold its first auction ever in Kobe, Japan, from Nov. 9-10.
Poe Rava Nui thus has decided to follow the pattern that Robert Wan began several years ago of holding Tahitian pearl auctions in Hong Kong and Kobe. Wan, the world's largest producer of Tahitian pearls, now holds three auctions in Hong Kong and two in Kobe each year.
The June Poe Rava Nui Auction in Hong Kong earned ?3.37 million, or US$4.32 million, from 40 buyers out of the participating 68 companies, JNA reported. The average price per pearl sold was ?23.10, or US$29.56. The average per gram price for sold pearls was ?14.96, or US$19.14. Those prices reflected an average overbidding of about 15%, Poe Rava Nui President Alfred Martin told JNA.
"We set lower reserve prices this time as a means to promote our first auction in Hong Kong and to attract more buyers to our next auction," Martin said. "We aim to obtain good, if not high prices in order to satisfy pearl farmers, resulting in their supplying us with more goods in the future."
The 35th Poe Rava Nui International Auction has been scheduled for Sept. 2-4 and will also be held in Hong Kong right after the Concorde Auction, Martin told JNA. He said the venue is like to change to the Eaton Hotel In Yaumatei on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.
Poe Rava Nui also plans to organize 36th international auction in Kobe, Japan, in October, Martin announced. He told JNA his cooperative had gained support from major pearl dealers in Japan for the Kobe auction.
"Tahiti will have big harvests from July to September," Martin said. "We will select mainly the larger pearls from among those collected before mid-August and bring them to Hong Kong in September, and keep the smaller sizes and the harvests gathered after mid-August for our Kobe auction in October."
Poe Rava Nui's June auction priced the Tahitian pearls in euros for the first time. That followed the precedent set last year by Robert Wan, who holds yearly Tahitian cultured pearl international auctions in Hong Kong and Kobe. Martin said Poe Rava Nui would stick with the euro currency from now on to avoid risks stemming from fluctuations in the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar.
Martin told JNA that Hong Kong buyers were satisfied with the quality of the Tahitian pearls during the June auction. "The overall quality of the pearls was not as good as at the previous auction in Suzhou. This time about 80% of the pearls were of C or D quality, but their coating and color were okay. Many buyers preferred these lower luster but clean goods to spotted goods."
Attendance at the Hong Kong auction was much higher than at Poe Rava Nui's first 32 auctions held in Tahiti, Martin told JNA. He said the last auction in Tahiti, last October, attracted only 15 buyers. Poe Rava Nui did not invite any buyers from Tahiti to the Hong Kong auction in June, he added.
