Farming in the Arabian Gulf (Persian Gulf)

[Mubarak]

Hi every one;

I would like to thank the owner of this forum and every one.
I'm planing to establish a pearl farm in our contry, but i dont know if its worth it or not. As i know the persian Gulf pearl was one of the best in the past .
i have some questions and i will be thankful to ansure me.
1. Is it a good and profitable business ?
2. what do i need to start?
3. is it hard to market Pearls
4. Do you thing i have to focus in quality over quantity?
5. Do i have to import a shells or our shells are good?

thank you so much
and forgive my poor English

Mubarak

[jshepherd]

I think it is definitely worth it to establish a pearl business in your country. But what country are you in? The first thing I think you need to check on are the local laws. Some areas (like Bahrain) do not allow pearls to be cultured. They do this to protect their natural pearling businesses. If your country does not have any laws that restrict a culturing operation than I would definitely suggest more research.
Answers:
1. It can be a very profitable business. But it also does take a lot of investment. You must be able to control your overhead to make a profit in the end. This is why so many farms are now in China - cheap land, cheap labor, abundant resources.
2. You need the permits required for something like this more than anything. After you have this, you need $$$. You also need people that know how to nucleate, harvest, treat, etc.
3. Most farms sell their entire harvests quite easily. They sell a lot to direct buyers who have a special interest in their farms and pearls. These buyers usually buy the best of the crop. The remainder are sold quite easily in trade shows around the world. There are a lot in Europe, and several in Asia. There is also a large one in India (check the pearl-guide.com/forum calendar).
4. Quality over quantity is always the best way to go. When you drop quality your prices fall as well, and it is always very difficult to get past the stigma of providing low-quality pearls. This happened to the Chinese, and although they can now produce extremely high-quality pearls equivalent to the Japanese, many people still do not trust pearls from this area.
5. This depends on what kind of pearls you plan to produce. It is always best to use oysters native to your area. I doubt there are many hatcheries nearby, however. Depending on the oyster spat-collection is possible, but I do not think you are in an area native to the Pinctada maxima or or Pinctada margaritifera.

I think it would be great if you keep us posted on your progress if you do decide to go ahead with this venture!

[Mubarak]

i'm so happy for your replay
i'm from the United Arab Emirates - Abudhabi, i'm not sure about the law, but i'll check.
if it's not allowed in the UAE can i invist in any deferant country like China, India or Indonesia ?
thank you for your help and i'll keep posting to let you know

Mubarak

[jshepherd]

The easiest would be China in which to invest. I do know that you will need local partners for this.
I have invested in a pearl farm myself on Hainan Island. The initial investment is small, only about $10,000. The most expensive portion is the factory and the equipment. When we have our first harvest, which will not be for another year, my total cost will be about $50,000. But I should be able to recoup most of this after harvest. In 4 years time the farm (if all goes as planned) will be profitable.

[jshepherd]

Any updates on the local laws?

[Donzi32]

Salem al lakum and ramadan kareem my friend.

I wanted to share with you the latest development on a new pearl farm in RAK.

http://www.rakpearls.com/

Best wishes

[Donzi32]

Hi there Jeremy,

I wanted to chime in here as I've been looking into the new pearl beds that are cropping up in the UAE.
It's been very hard to find any really robust or useable information but luckily through having a passion in scuba diving and a fear of running into Bull sharks I discovered a few "pearls" of information from some of the local dive shops here.

I was down at my local dive site at the Jebel Ali resort and spa which you can see on the map here:
https://maps.google.ae/maps?hl=en&q=...&ved=0CMABELYD

I was speaking with the local dive master there and he mentioned yeah there are pearl beds just off the shore there that the local hotel chain is using for a pearl diving experience here http://www.jumeirah.com/Pearl-Diving/

His view was that he was not impressed at all by the operation as it was attracting some unwanted big marine life, namely several 2 metre Bull sharks who were coming into the shallows to take a look as they are naturally curious and the parasites that are attracted to the oysters were attracting some interesting fish - basically altering the food chain a bit.

Ok so long story is there yes there a several pearl beds for tourism use popping up in 2m - 6m water with added Bull Shark to for the "Surprise" effect for the unsuspecting tourist. But there are several deeper beds at 40 metres further off shore. I questioned that as that seemed excessively deep, what is average depth for salt water pearl growing?

In terms of local licensing I'd say there is no way to enter into a business like this unless you had a local partner as co-sponsor and then the land rights for pearling would belong to the goverment so honestly I have no ide what so ever but do know it must be possible if people are doing it.

Every Emirate might have different "Freezone" laws e.g. my company is based in a Freezone allowing us to operate without sponsor or partner but only within those confinements - we can't ship or trade outside of there so our business is selling to our retailers who do have a local sponsor.

I do think it would be worth checking with the http://www.dmcc.ae/jltauthority/pear...earl-exchange/ as they would be able to give a better idea.

Exciting idea though, very as labour would be extremely cheap here as well as warehouse facilities etc.

Any updates on the local laws?