South Sea Pearl Production down in Indonesia

[Sutrisno]

Hi PG! Long time, been a hectic year, hope you guys are doing great, so much in the forums to catch up to. Anyways, here's some info about the indonesian pearl industry from some farmers i spoke to. This is not a statistical announcement or such but just word of mouth from farmers and what i personally saw.

Indonesia's pearl farms are having a record low production 2012, 2013 and if the situation improves, will only pick up at least 3 years from now. This is reflected in higher prices according to a farmer, there just ain't enough SSP especially on medium to higher grades.

One cause is very high mortality of oyster spats of 2010 to 2012. Another is a few farmers are having trouble with local government and are either forced to downsize, or move out one of their farm/s.

I really do hope there will be some positive news this year for indonesian farmers, because speaking with them, quite a few are already prepared to call it a day and quit the adventure.

 

[pattye]

Thank you very much for the report and your insights, Sutrisno. We love our South Sea pearls.

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Sustrisno
That is a nice on the ground reporting job. I am sorry it is not better news. Any chance you could get some photos of a small pearl operation there? Any chance you could indicate what the numbers of pearl farms are? And how many might close? How do they sell their pearls? How is their pearl quality affected? Any photos of the pearl crop at a farm? It would be so interesting to actually see photos of all of this...

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Hi PG! Long time, been a hectic year, hope you guys are doing great, so much in the forums to catch up to. Anyways, here's some info about the indonesian pearl industry from some farmers i spoke to. This is not a statistical announcement or such but just word of mouth from farmers and what i personally saw.

Indonesia's pearl farms are having a record low production 2012, 2013 and if the situation improves, will only pick up at least 3 years from now. This is reflected in higher prices according to a farmer, there just ain't enough SSP especially on medium to higher grades.

One cause is very high mortality of oyster spats of 2010 to 2012. Another is a few farmers are having trouble with local government and are either forced to downsize, or move out one of their farm/s.

I really do hope there will be some positive news this year for indonesian farmers, because speaking with them, quite a few are already prepared to call it a day and quit the adventure.

Hi Sustrino.
Sadly for you this is actually good news for the rest of the producing countries.

 

[perlinda]

Selamat siang, terima kasih infonya Pak Sutrisno. Just yesterday I met with friends who are pearl wholesaler and they also mentioned the price for the new stocks have been very high (almost twice than regular price) but could only suspect what the cause is. There has been word of mouth going around that there's a plan to keep increasing the price and make SSP exclusive like it used to be. But with other pearls like FWP getting better and cheaper, I wonder how SSP industry can survive if the price keeps going up and up.

Regarding the local government, less than 2 years ago the program was to increase the production https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4909
And now there has been restriction, if this is to improve the overall quality then I can only support it, but is there other reason behind it? Pearl farm industry in Indonesia has been going toward monopoly since the past few years, if more local farms are going to close down then this is indeed sad news.

 

[Sutrisno]

Hi Caitlin,

I am not comfortable quoting which companies closing down which farms because pearl farmers a very proud lot as you know and I feel it is not my place. So I will present only what have been publicised including the closing of a pearl farm by a local government.

http://regional.kompas.com/read/2012/04/02/09393222/Perusahan.Ditutup.Aset.Dijarah.Warga

That one is a big case because it involved almost half a thousand people buccaneering the pearl farm. This farm was supplying another bigger company's pearl oysters needs too so when it was closed down, production on both companies dropped significantly.

http://rumahalir.or.id/50-persen-perusahaan-mutiara-tidak-aktif/

A short article about the pearl farms around Lombok not working in full capacity last year. It is also mentioned that 1 farm moved out. As we all know, pearls take a long time to nurture and moving to a new area will definitely lower production for a few years.

They are all in Indonesian so you will need to use google translate.

Perlinda, well the programme IS to increase production, better quality, and better quantities. But what the central government planned, and what the local government executes sometimes are two very different things as we can see in the first article.

Conspiracy theories aside, pearl farming in Indonesia is not 'monopolised'. Prices are not set by 1 company, it is set by the quality of your product and current supply/demand ratios. As we can see, all the big pearl farm companies in the world goes by auctions and it is practically impossible to monopolise from the producer side in my opinion. 3 big companies auctions from Australia, Indonesia, Philippine, each year in turn sets the 'market' price of South Sea Pearls which is usually what the smaller farmers base their own pearls on. Now what price the smaller farmers get is totally dependant on the quality of their own production. Though of course, for all farmers, big or small, higher prices are always welcomed.

 

[Bodecia]

Hello Sutrisno,

Apart from government problems could the many earthquakes there have been around Indonesia over the last 3 or 4 years have any effect on the production of the SS pearls, numbers and quality. I haven't checked if there have been more earthquakes in the last 2 or 3 years than years ago but it seems Indonesia is hit by earthquakes very often.


Dawn - Bodecia
http://www.ebay.com/sch/dawncee333/m.html
eBay Seller ID dawncee333 and natural pearl collector and all round pearl lover.

 

[Sutrisno]

Hi Bodecia,

I cannot say whether the many earthquakes have affected the production. However it is indeed a very interesting point as such earthquakes should cause a big shift in sea bed sediments which should in some way, affect the mineral content of the water affecting the microbes all the way to the higher orders. But from the farmers themselves, haven't heard one that has correlated earthquakes to production.

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Hi Bodecia,

I cannot say whether the many earthquakes have affected the production. However it is indeed a very interesting point as such earthquakes should cause a big shift in sea bed sediments which should in some way, affect the mineral content of the water affecting the microbes all the way to the higher orders. But from the farmers themselves, haven't heard one that has correlated earthquakes to production.

Water absorb and disperse energy...