Gujarat, India farmer develops 48-carat pearl

[Caitlin]

LINK

It's from a freshwater pearl farm in India!

Navsari: A pearl farmer has developed a 48-carat pink pearl, in Chikhli town of Gujarat's Navsari district.



The pearl-farmer, Bhargav Desai, said that they are planning to auction the pearl at the famous auctioneers Sotheby's or Christie's, and are awaiting clearance from the Gem and Pearl Testing Laboratory in Bahrain.
The pearl is expected to fetch a price between Rs30 million and 100 million.
Desai has been producing pearls since 2004 at the Bhargav Freshwater Aquaculture Farm in Chikhli town.
He said that pearl farming is much more profitable than any other type of farming.
"This pearl culture gives us more income than normal agriculture. Pearl culture is not that widespread in India. There is very limited production and the demand for pearls is very high in our area...and pearls are being imported from China as well. So, if more pearl farms are developed here, our foreign currency would be saved and our farmers will be economically saved," said Desai.
He added that though pearl farming brings good returns, it is a risky business and that prevents people from taking it up as a profession in India.
Pearls are farmed in fresh water and nuclei of different sizes are implanted in mussels for the production of pearls. The entire process of implantation and harvesting of the pearl takes about two years.

[smetzler]

Leaves nothing but questions. What terrible reporting.

[GemGeek]

Sure. I have a bridge for sale, too.

[Caitlin]

wow. I just keep bombing out ......Would you say there is no pearl farm? The sending it to Bahrain lab made me go, Huh? Especially since it has a bead. Maybe this came out April Fool's. It is a local Indian newspaper, not meant to go worldwide.

[pattye]

Well, there are 5 carats in a gram, so the pearl would weigh approx 9.6 grams. I just weighed a cfwp that is about 15mm x 15mm and it weighs 5.0 grams, so if true, it would be a huge pearl!

[pearlmaid]

This is the same story but published on a reliable newspaper site with a bit more details.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-n...London/299556/

[smetzler]

Yes, clearly 15 days at the Central Institute, high quality calcium carbonate and natural gum will invariably give you Jesus Christ…

Let's hope Bahrain gives the green light soon for this one to see the light of day!

[Caitlin]

OK ROFL!!!

I want to start a new thread called "Truth or Bunk" or something like that. I'd put the first paragraphs of the ebay Miki article in there, now this. We can be the Snopes for pearls.....

With further research whether its truth or bunk will show up. What do you guys think?

[GemGeek]

Snopes for pearls - I like it!

[Bodecia]

Yes Caitlin,

This type of article is very confusing - we need whatever brilliance you can come up with.

Dawn eBay ID dawncee333

[pearlmaid]

hey guys... can you please help me understand why do you think this may not be true?
Just to clarify.. I do not have any knowledge of pearl farming... I am just curious...:-)

[Caitlin]

I wish they had put some background into the article- I think the reporter knows nothing about pearls. It sounded like the farm is well-funded, the technicians are trained- one article said the giant was nucleated. And they are going for top of the line pearls.

Perhaps, they really are freshwater pearl farming in India! That they are farming pearls sounds like the real story. It appears they want to hit the news with something big.

The size of the pearl is so unusual I can understand the skepticism. An expert like Steve or Blaire understands the unlikelihood of a 48 carat CFWP- though there are rumors of 22-23mm pearls. Those stories might be unverified too-but Maybe they aren't. Still this is a Huge Pearl or it's not. My biggest question is the Bahrain lab. What do they expect to prove by sending a beaded pearl to a lab for testing?

[smetzler]

What do they expect to prove by sending a beaded pearl to a lab for testing?

Maybe the Jesus hypothesis can be debunked.

A Surat-Based farmer has developed a 48-carat cultured pearl weighing 15 grams.

A miracle in itself, as 15 grams is 75 carats. Cultured pearls are never offered or described by weight, and 48 carats would not even qualify as unusual among natural pearls from tridacna or gastropod.

Also seems they saw something about the premium for pink overtone (in akoya) and thought that would be nice frosting on the cake.

[GemGeek]

Real or not, it just doesn't make sense to me.

[Caitlin]

LOL!

Bad reporting. Lousy translations that distort the poor reporting and a legend/myth is created. This story may persist, maybe we can track it.

In the world of pearls, skepticism is needed and developed quickly or money is lost.