The desire to farm Tahitian pearls begins with a dream,
which then transforms into reality.
This reality is made up first of heavy investment, then strenuous work,
then more investment, then more work and so on until the harvest of those first
pearls. This could be four or more
years after setting out in the first place.
Even after all the hard work and investment there is no
guarantee or promise of pearls.
They could all be eaten by leopard rays or green turtles off the lines
they grow on. Or sickness could
strike your oysters down, just days away from harvesting. Worse yet, the pearls could be stolen
while still in the water or after being harvested. These are all things I’ve experienced whether directly or
through the pain of fellow farmers.
The investment a Tahitian pearl farmer has in each and every
pearl can scarcely be quantified.
Unlike freshwater pearls that are cultivated many to the same bivalve,
Tahitian pearls are born alone in each oyster. For the success of the operation, it’s vital that the farmer
cares for each oyster. This care
is then passed on to the pearl.
Now imagine yourself as this farmer who has struggled
against the odds to produce their pearls.
You take your pearls to Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. The airfare alone will cost you about
USD600 if you are coming from the far-flung southern islands. You will then need to secure a hotel
room for the week you plan to stay and sell your pearls. By the time you are back home you will
have spent more than a month’s wage for incidental travel.
You get lucky and find a foreign buyer and agree on a
price. Now you have to take your
pearls to the Maison de la Perliculture for export procedures. There you are greeted by a friendly
staff of busy people who are in a whir of activity with other farmer’s
pearls. There are several huge
machines with radiation warnings on them that your pearls will go into. A technician inspects every single pearl
of your 1,000 pearl lot. Fifty of
them get put aside before the rest is sealed in a bag with the documents that
your buyer will need for export.
Amongst the 50 pearls there are two that you recognize, one
a rare blue peacock and the other an equally rare gold with no green
tinge. You clench your teeth when
you think about where these beauties will end up.
Since 1998 it has been mandated that all pearls exported
have a minimum nacre (pearl shell material) thickness of 0.8mm on each side of
the nucleus. Pearls that fall
short, even at 0.75mm are confiscated and ground into powder.
There has always been controversy about this but I support
it. I think it is one of the few
good things the Tahitian government has done in managing the pearl
industry. It allows us as a nation
to set ourselves apart from competing black pearl industries such as the Cook
Islands or Fiji.
I am proud of our thick nacred pearls as I know that they
can be worn for many, many years.
That lets me sleep well at night and dream of other things.
