| It is a common misconception that Tahitian pearls only come from Tahiti. While the island of Tahiti has a plethora of Tahitian pearl stores, and the Robert Wan museum, it has not pearl farms. There are pearl farms in the Tahiti Atolls, but this is not where the majority of them are. A couple of close ones would be a small farm on Taha'a (which only cultures approximately 1500 pearls per nucleation and is mainly a tourist attraction), and another medium sized farm on Huahine.
For good Tahitian pearls at a better price I have always been in favor of venturing out to the Cook Islands to the East. The Northern Manihiki Atoll and the Southern Rarotonga areas have some very good pearl farms. It is difficult to make first contact, but after a relationship that spans 1-2 harvests you can usually direct the operation to meet your needs.
On a side note, Micronesia is now in the Tahitian Pearl game as well. Given their location I feel they will do better than the attempts made in the Philippines and Indonesia.  |