Why South Sea Pearls Are So Expensive | So Expensive | Business Insider

[Music] this is the most important moment in the process of creating a south sea pole the moment when harry inserts the nucleus into an oyster around which a power will form and if he's imprecise the resulting pearl may come out misshapen the goal is this a near perfect round pearl with a large 20 millimeter diameter that's more than twice the size of the more common akoya pearl and this single pearl can sell for fifteen hundred dollars compared to seventy-five dollars for a high-grade aquarium a necklace of near-perfect southsea pearls can cost over two hundred thousand dollars so why is making these piles so much more difficult and what makes them so expensive south sea refers to the southern portion of the pacific ocean in these waters just off the coast of lombok indonesia pearl farms like aftol pearl are growing cultured pearls these are pearls that require a human to put something inside an oyster instead of harvesting naturally occurring pearls and south sea pearls are the most expensive variety of cultured pearls that's in part because of how long it takes to make a south sea pearl while some fresh water oysters can churn out dozens of smaller pearls within three months it takes about five years to cultivate a single south sea pearl the oyster it comes from the pink tarda maxima can only make one at a time and only a fourth of these oysters survive cultivation that's why the pearl farmers have to go to great lengths to keep the oysters alive it starts in this highly controlled laboratory where lab technicians must create the perfect conditions for oyster larvae to grow into healthy pearl producing adults they have to maintain a room temperature of exactly 20 degrees celsius and feed the larvae the phytoplankton they need to grow to do this they combine salt water from the south sea and sodium hydroxide and store it for five days until there's enough plankton lab techs feed the plankton to nets of baby oysters and monitor their growth for about 45 days that's around the time they reach at least one millimeter in diameter and are old enough to be transferred to sea the oysters are transferred to save on the costs of rearing bigger oysters which can get expensive [Music] agave in the south sea the oysters get the warm waters and food they need to mature but this is also where most of them will die without producing a single pearl [Music] that's why performers have to check on the oysters monthly to ensure they're still growing eating and healthy they pull the nets of oysters up from the sea and clean the shells this helps prevent predators from feeding off the oysters and eventually killing [Music] after up to two years of nursing when the oysters are large enough implantation can begin for cultured pearls implantation is the most important step when a nucleus is implanted the oyster sees it as an irritant and reacts by building protective layers of nature around it this becomes the pearl [Music] harry is demonstrating where the nucleus is implanted on an opened oyster [Music] he tears the oyster's gonads and injects the nucleus in the middle he then adds sibo under the nucleus sibo is a mantle tissue cut from another oyster that surrounds the implanted nucleus it's essential to the pearl quality and without it the oyster won't produce any pearls at all harry is the only person after all trusts with this step that's because the nuclei don't come cheap mahmoud buys the nuclei from japan and their cost in addition to import taxes takes 20 of his profits and he says getting import permits for these nuclear is difficult preventing him from buying enough to expand his business after the nucleus is implanted special attention is paid to how the naked grows around it to avoid a misshapen pearl they're working towards a large almost perfectly round pearl workers invert the oysters and put them in their protective nets to bring back to sea the south sea piles unique soft satiny lustre and thick naked are a result of the warm waters it grows in and a thick naked means a large pearl harry says they must flip them regularly so the naked grows evenly after 40 days workers remove the oysters from the sea and clean them weakly harry checks the implanted oysters monthly to see how the pearl is developing this is done for up to two years before the first pearl can be harvested [Music] harry implants the same oyster two more times each time the pearl after all harvests is bigger by the third harvest the pearl can reach over 20 millimeters in diameter and over eight grams in weight but as much as pearl farmers like mahmoud invest in the intense care needed to raise the oysters the outcome is never guaranteed mahmoud says only 20 of the oysters that survive make the most valuable kind of pearl almost perfectly round lustrous and large mahmoud grades the pearls based on size luster shape and color the larger rounder shinier minimally blemished pearls get the highest grade that can be triple a or quadruple a depending on the producer mahmoud then sells them to jewellers like rihanna melia who fashions the pearls into necklaces earrings and rings rihanna seeks out the highest grade she can find but it isn't easy it is lower grades are more available but they're rougher asymmetrical and lack shine and in the jewelry world those are the least desirable but even the highest grade pearls are not perfectly round that's because even though they're formed they're still natural pearls so finding a near perfect pearl let alone enough to make a string necklace is extremely rare it took nine years for rihanna to find enough triple a grade pearls to make this necklace she is finally able to sell it this year for 36 000 to a local buyer that makes sourcing these expensive pearls worth it for rihanna who relies on farmers to continue to produce high quality pearls but mahmoud says pearl farmers need more support from the government specifically around making nuclei readily available with this kind of support pearl farmers say they could increase their production and make indonesian south sea pearls more readily available internationally

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 10,177,634

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, pearl, South sea pearl, Luxury, jewelry, how its made, necklace, harvest

Id: A-DEq8E-2nQ

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022