Fair fresh water pearl production?

[carinaest]

Has anybody been to China to see what working conditions in fresh water pearl production are like? I have never been there myself, only heard that it varies tremendeously between producer to producer.

If anybody has a feel-good experience from any Chinese producer, or have heard of any, please tell me about it, or where to buy pearls from these specific producers. Pearls of interest are keshi, petal or baroque fresh water pearls of great quality.

Thank you in advance!
Carrie

[pearlescence]

Hello and welcome.
Pearls mostly come from farms via large factories which process them (colour, drilling, stringing etc) and then wholesalers in China or Hong Kong, before maybe going to wholesalers in other countries before manufacturers before....(which is one of the reasons why prices can vary so much depending where on this long line of transactions one intercepts the pearls as the final seller). So the pearls get pretty much mixed up all along the line.
Nevertheless it is probably reasonably true that one does not get a great product from a rubbish producer.
What sort of volume are you looking for?

[Kevin Canning]

Hi Carrie and welcome to Pearl Guide. Like Wendy says the factories can and will get pearls from all over so tracing a strand of pearls back to a single farm would be difficult in most cases. The farms are basic ponds and while conditions may not be what north americans would call comfortable its pretty typical of rural china and much better then the horror stories we hear about at nike factories and such. The farmers will occasional change what type of aquaculture they are doing in the ponds, depending on what is most profitable for them at the time, so nobody is forced to work on pearl farms.

I will try and pull a few pictures of freshwater farms to give you a better idea of what its like.

[carinaest]

I will need around 1500 pearls, only whites, to start things up with. Within the following three months I hope to need the double. Interesting to read both your posts about farms. Exactly the "Nike factory model" is what I dread. I very much appreciate your respons. It's great to be here at Pearl Guide!

[pattye]

Just curious--are you wanting different sizes? shapes? drilled? what quality? That's roughly the equivalent of 30 strands????