Akoya Production

[sandstone]

I have read recently that Akoya pearl production is now greater in China than in Japan although it is sold in Japan with a "Made in Japan" label.

In the pearl education part of this website it states 95% of Akoya are Japanese.
Could someone clarity this for me please?

 

[GemGeek]

There was a period when Japan had a major die-off of akoya shell and Chinese production stepped up.

The larger sizes have always been Japanese. Japanese production is high now. Sorry if this is confusing, but it takes a while for information on the Internet to catch up with reality.

All pearls processed in Japan are sold as a product of Japan.

 

[jshepherd]

Yes, that is old information. There were two natural disasters back-to-back in China that wiped out akoya pearl production. Now China is a huge market for Japanese akoya pearls as China has almost no domestic production any longer.

 

[KAC]

There WAS an issue, but now the Chinese Akoya pearl industry has collapsed.

In the past Chinese pearls were brought into Japan as loose pearls, but exiting Japan as finished jewelry, along with a "product of Japan" label.

There was a couple of sellers that would display a blue "product of Japan" tag as proof their pearls were Japanese Akoya pearls, but in reality they were mostly pearls produced in China.

Its a non-issue now, nearly everything is Japanese.

 

[BWeaves]

Interesting. I did not know that.

 

[pearlescence]

There is some akoya production though. There is a Chinese akoya pearl farmer member in the forum - Bigwell.

 

[jshepherd]

There is some akoya production though. There is a Chinese akoya pearl farmer member in the forum - Bigwell.

He's not a farmer. He's a pearl dealer and one of the last who deals in Chinese akoya pearls.

There are a few farmers left from Leizhou Peninsula down through Behai, but there used to be hundreds or even thousands. Now almost all domestic production stays domestic and many of the former famers, my old partner included, now come to the shows to buy Japanese akoya pearls to supply their domestic wholesale clients.

 

[Jacques]

Just curious, what were the two back-to-back disasters? Typhoons, or something like mortality due to water quality issues?

 

[jshepherd]

I don't remember the name of the typhoon in 2007, but it was Kammuri in 2008 that was the second in a row that destroyed nearly every farm in China. It was the freshwater runoff, not the storm. They couldn't lower the baskets deep enough to save the shells. There was a massive die-off.

 

[sandstone]

Thanks Guys,
Very interesting