| Most of the pearls in China are still tissue-cultured. Some are very round.
Bead-nucleated Pearls will become more popular. Generally they are fireball. There are now small quantity of almost round or round Bead-nucleated Pearls, but most of them are smaller than 10 mm. They are not cheap. The large round Bead-nucleated pearls are very expansive. One farmer has told me that he has sold one piece with a diameter of 20,5 mm and very good quality for a price ca. 50 K US dollars.
Pearls are also used as bead, but only in small quantity and in very few farmers. One company has 2 patents in this area and began to test this method 10 years ago. The main cause is that normal beads are more cheap than pearls. |