[jshepherd]

I don't know where the source of this information is coming from and maybe it has simply not made the press yet, but it appears as though GIE Perles de Tahiti is closing down completely at the end of the month.

http://www.pearl-professor.com/2008/...i-is-gone.html

This is scary.

[barbie biggs]

I was wondering, what's the worst case scenario for this? No more tahitians or tahitians with quality problems similar to CFWP's? Or something else?
barbie

[waimeamomi]

Maybe we should wait for something official or in the news. I googled, and there is not a peep out there. This is basically an anonymous tip, and in the wake of all the political "facts" that have been all over the internet lately, I'm a big fan of fact checking. Seeing this thread title makes it look very official. Maybe it should say "may be done." Respectfully, submitted of course, as Jeremy is more in the know than I.

[jshepherd]

I have since gotten a confirmation from an insider. It really looks like this is the end.

[waimeamomi]

Yikes Thanks for following up on that. Josh, you out there?

[Nathan Reed]

I don't mean to be naive, but how will this actually affect us?

[pearlescence]

Jeremy, anyone in the Tahiti loop - what will be the effect of this. The nacre depth rule for a start?

[barbie biggs]

I know from reading these last months that this could mean at the least a complete deregulation of the Tahitian Pearl trade. Don't the pearl farmers have a pretty tough time already, trying to raise quality pearls and survive, pay their people, just basically run their business above red-line? Does it mean those farms will cease to exist?
barbie

[effisk]

Isn't the service de la perliculture a completely different organization from the GIE PDT? They were however both created at the initiative of the local government, but I don't think the dissolution of the GIE PDT would affect the nacre thickness minimum.

There are other GIEs around. Professional Pearl Producers' Association, Poe Rava Nui, Poe O Tahiti Nui, the Syndicat des Petits et Moyens Producteurs de Polynésie Française and a few others. They are not as powerful as the GIE PDT was (except maybe for the first cited above).

Vertically integrated companies such as R.Wan will probably be the least affected.

I am really saddened by this news..

Ash

[jshepherd]

There is always the possibility of an upside to this. Since not all farmers were really happy with GIE and they way they spent the marketing dollars allotted to them, if the organization is replaced be a new, sleeker, sharper organization with a stronger marketing plan, maybe it will pull the industry up from its knees and help fuel the popularity of Tahitian pearls. In a way, GIE PDT failed. So they were fired.

Effisk is right. GIE PDT is the promotional arm of the industry. It shutting down is scary, but maybe it is a precursor to more of an industry-wide shakeup.

[Miriam Reed]

It is scary as we don't know yet how this will affect the industry. Lets hope the possibility you mention of a new organization with a stronger marketing plan materializes.

[Josh]

I hear what you are saying about it being scary but what's important to understand is that the GIE has cost millions and millions of dollars since it's debut and it has not been able to prove it's worth. I'm not saying they haven't done anything and I know personally some very well intentioned, hard working, competent people in there. For years though all the industry and public has seen down here is photos in the newspapers of GIE high ups knocking champagne glasses with celebrities in different places around the globe, all the while the price of pearls has done nothing but plummet.
So basically, I'll be looking forward to seeing the new and I hope improved GIE.
I don't see what's so scary about it. I understand that to an outsider, it may have seemed like the only official body that was holding things together. But they weren't and the current market reflects that. It's my feeling from personal experience (though others will disagree) that it was little more than a tool to channel money from all farmers to the use of a very small, very elite group.
As I have always said, the central factor that is responsible for the current state of the market is the lack of structure. The GIE did nothing for the chaos and until the government steps in or the farmers band together, the Tahitian pearl market will always be subject to the roller coaster ride that comes with prices dipping under the cost to produce pearls. Market crashes, farmers die off or slash back production and the following year there are less pearls and prices go back up for a while until crashing again.
So don't worry, it's the same as it's always been and we have been hovering around but more so under the cost of production for legitimate operations, so it's probably even a good time to buy. Next year prices will go up for sure. You read it here on Pearl-Guide first.

[pearlescence]

Thanks for that Josh. What it looks like then is that GIE promoted GIE as a brand as against actually selling pearls for you and all the other actual producers.
It is something to watch out for with these selling quangos (do you have Quangos anywhere but in the UK - quasi non-governmental organisations - ie they are gov when they want to be but arms length when they don't, but usually funded by government by grant)
I was in a local gov funded promotional such thing last year but realised that they were promoting the brand of Made in Lancashire, not Pearlescence and Made in was an umbrella organisation.
Now that is very good for organisation which doesn't want to market direct and get their own name known, but I wanted Pearlescence known, not Made in Lancashire.
Marketing the umbrella organisation rather than the products seems to be an easy trap for Quangos to fall into. They look very successful and busy and doing lots and lots but it aint selling the pearls.

[barbie biggs]

Thank you Josh and Wendy:
It's good to look at the long term and see what will happen to the people in the industry. We know what will happen to the pearls. Worst case scenario: already happened; they were almost extinct in many cases. Best case scenario: things will improve with better, "sleeker, sharper organization" as Jeremy so aptly puts it.

Jeez Josh, prices may be up next year? Better buy today huh? Yikes..
barbie

Well, could be good for the black pearl pirates, umm, farmers.