Australian akoya pearls - any good?

[LorenLL]

I've came upon a GIA article written in 2017 talking about akoya pearl farming in Eastern Australia, mainly Broken Bay:
Akoya Cultured Pearl Farming in Eastern Australia

According to the article the pearls do not undergo the same process done on their Japanese counterparts; in addition, the nacre is much thicker, 0.8mm vs 0.2-0.3mm of Japanese akoyas.

Based on a brief search on Google the farm mentioned in the report also has an online store of their own, and judging by some of the product photos, their pearls do look different from the Japanese pearls, with a solid, creamy body colour and silky lustre instead of the latter's pure white/pink colour and mirror-like lustre.

That said, I've never seen an Australian akoya in person, and there are not much information other than the GIA article and the pearl farm website. Does anyone own or have seen Australian akoya pearls? Are the pearls similar to what was shown in the website? In addition, what's your opinion on them?

 

[Amoreperla]

Oh I had to go look them up, I had not seen them before. It’s very interesting that have akoya in Australia. The pictures do look beautiful but I have not seen any in person.

 

[Ladykyva]

Like they are growing the Akoya oyster in Australian waters? I’m not sure it would look any different unless there’s some special kind of pollution or something in the water that changes how the animal makes the pearl

 

[LorenLL]

Like they are growing the Akoya oyster in Australian waters? I’m not sure it would look any different unless there’s some special kind of pollution or something in the water that changes how the animal makes the pearl

Since the article was written in 2017, it could be assumed that akoya pearls are farmed in Australia for at least a decade now.

While the article said that the environment of Australian farms and Japanese farms are very similar, one very big difference is most Japanese akoya pearls go through intense treatments (maeshori, pinking etc.) to attain the color and lustre customers typically associated with akoya pearls, while Australian akoya pearls do not.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Would the warmer water temperature of Australian waters increase the rate at which nacre is laid down, and would that reduce the luster compared with Japanese akoyas?

 

[LorenLL]

Would the warmer water temperature of Australian waters increase the rate at which nacre is laid down, and would that reduce the luster compared with Japanese akoyas?

Quoting from the article:

It is located approximately the same distance from the equator as the southern Japanese pearl farms, and its very similar seasonal variations of water temperature optimize nacre quality during the cultivation process (Strack, 2006; Gilbert et al., 2017).

Not sure about what's exactly meant by "southern Japanese pearl farms" (AFAIK the southern end of Japanese pearl farming region reaches Amami Ooshima), but for akoyas it is usually the region around Mie and further north in recent years. In this case I would expect the quality of the "raw" pearls to be similar, except that the Australian akoyas would have a much thicker nacre due to the difference in farming practices.

 

[ennui]

Apparently there are Akoya pearl farms off the south coast of India, too. Learn something new every day.

 

[Pearling Technologies]

Quality is excellent. A Japanese company originally started the farm after searching the east coast for the best water conditions that would suit Akoya. Since this time, the farm has changed ownership but is now owned by Pearls of Australia (think Cygnet Bay Pearls in West Australia). We supply them with some equipment. And can confirm, no treatment.