Fiji J Hunter pearls Savusavu

[Bailey1856]

thank you for the beautiful pictures and very informative posts

 

[Justin Hunter]

Bula Pattye -

Our farming models are different and our environment can be unforgiving. With that said.

In a normal year we will harvest 35 - 40% "export grade" pearls. This is exceptionally low compared to other producers. Re-seeds will range between 10 - 20% of what we implant the previous year. We always have 4th op oysters on the farms. We have even implanted a handful of oysters 7 times! (these end up in our hatchery).

Our Colours.
I would like to say that all our pearls are chocolate and distinctly Fiji - but the truth is they are not. The technician and selecting mantle tissue is critical. We use three Japanese technicians - each with over 30 years experience. Two have worked for me 15 and 12 years respectively. The 3rd - worked with us for 5 years - and I just had to let him go!!!!! Why - he could not pull the colours - too much Traditional Tahitian and silver. I have tried other technicians - disaster!! Unviable.
I can glance at a bag of harvested pearls during our harvest and know which tech made them!!!

Another nuance to our colours is that every year, every season we see slight difference is overall colours.

One point that I always try to make is that our farms are located in bays around high (relative) tropical islands. We can get pretty significant rain events that can create a huge influx of nutrients via run-off and rivers. Nutrients coming into a bay in the tropics means you are going to have a food explosion!!


Most years things are fine. But this nutrient influx, can also lead to disaster. The algal profile (food available to pearl oysters) can change quickly. Unfortunately the fastest growing algae are quite often the least nutritional. It seems that about every 5 or 6 years we see a "complete crash" of young oysters on our farms. I theorise this to be food related - either low nutritional value or even slightly toxic blooms - that kill off young oysters and stress our large shells, but does not kill them - but we do see a "decrease" in colour intensity and a high % of oysters dropping pearls way later then they should be.
Also your bacterial load (vibrio) spikes - the coup de gras.
(Also suspended particlate matter - that researchers say Pearl oysters cannot handle!!! - Fiji shells can.)

This year instead of 35 - 40% "export grade" - we were less then 5%). This was due to a food issue in late 2012 - early 2013. Lots of those young oysters died that year - the ones that did survive, were very weak. If young oysters are stressed - their immune systems are compromised for ever! We knew this - but 5% is better then nothing, and we focus on our own retail.

Im not a deeply religious man - but every 5 or 6 years I spend a lot of time talking to God!!!!

On the positive side - i think we can manage these events better in the future.

Happy to answer any questions.

 

[Marianne]

Thank you for sharing this very interesting information, Justin. Your pearls are so beautiful. I have the deepest respect for small pearl farmers!
(Having grown up on a relatively small land farm, I understand the delicate balance of nature on one's livelihood !)

 

[Tucs]

Really interesting, I'm really enjoying getting to know more about your wonderful pearls, thank you for your explanations.

 

[Justin Hunter]

Last one

Last one

Just a couple more pics to get my point across from earlier. I know some of you are not quite sure.
My opinion: we make the best pearls in the world. And they are not Tahitian. And this is not my doing - Tahiti lobbied and brought in researchers for years to tell everyone that their oysters and environment were special and no one else can produce what they do - which it was and is true (P m cumungi).
Then they turned around and sold their industry to mass production - cheap Chinese labour and techs. Don't even know if any locals even work in the industry anymore (bit of a joke - but also truth to this). I hate what they have done, and I feel horrible for people like Josh - who gets pushed out of what they love doing, because people pushed quantity over quality. There are middle men who are to blame also, playing one farm against another - joking among themselves about what a great deal they got, as they pay a price they know is not viable.
These farmers have mouths to feed, kids to put in school. Sorry for my rant! (Jeremy has to put up with this all the time!) Here are some more pics:

Young shell - notice colours of young shell, nacre coloration can be seen in external shell.


This shell will produce that pearl.




External Shell - A lot less black - more brown influence. Evolved for this environment.



My favourites Fiji Baroques - outside shot.

 

[Cees]

Thank you Justin that we can see comments and explanation from you. Oyster shell colors from Fiji are stunning and to try to get the most beautiful pearls in the world out of these is knowledge. See you try to get all the best knowledge to produce to most stunning pearls. And you succeed all the time. Hope God saves you from disasters.

 

[CathyKeshi]

Justin, what fascinating and wonderful posts ... such interesting reading ... not to mention the glorious photos! As you said questions were okay ... your last photo on post #65 Fiji Baroques: Are those nucleated or "keshi" ? They are my favorites too

 

[Justin Hunter]

Justin, what fascinating and wonderful posts ... such interesting reading ... not to mention the glorious photos! As you said questions were okay ... your last photo on post #65 Fiji Baroques: Are those nucleated or "keshi" ? They are my favorites too

They are nucleated - but a little different then most people think. Don't want to get too much deeper then that.
thank you for the compliments. And thank you Cee's.

 

[CathyKeshi]

Thanks Justin ... so beautiful

 

[GemGeek]

Thank you Justin. It's so helpful to hear your explanations along with illustrative photos. I can never get enough.

 

[Oh Them Gems]

Thank you, kelluvpearls and Justin for your informative posts. I'm enjoying learning and daydreaming!

 

[pattye]

Many thanks again Justin for sharing so many details about your farming techniques and the detailed studies taking place. We are fascinated and you always have a rapt audience here.

 

[kelluvpearls]

Professional photos are so much better! Look at the chocolate pearl and I love the gold and pistachio ring/s.
Ohthemgems you're most welcome.

 

[BlackPearlDudeDC]

Welcome to you Justin, and thanks for the insight, I don't feel you are ranting, your passion is very clear!!! To me this is all very informative. Truth be told, I pride myself on not being envious of others, but when I see beautiful pearls like yours?I fail every time. Color me green with envy! These colors are amazing!

View attachment 36855

This shell will produce that pearl.

View attachment 36857


My favourites Fiji Baroques - outside shot.
View attachment 36861

 

[JerseyPearl]

What are the sizes of these delicious little nuggets of pearls? The colors are amazing.

 

[TaliLady]

Hi guys, and thank you Kelluvpearls for coming and visiting. We absolutely love having visitors who really appreciate what we do and the pearls we have to offer.
It can be a bit overwhelming to see the response that our "baby's" get. We are proud and each one of them is rather special to us. Please come and visit - we have a great story and appreciate the passion this blog promotes.

There you Jeremy - I finally did it.

Hi Justin,

Your pearls are beautiful! I'm a newbie here on this forum, but all of the information and beautiful pearls that I have seen here, have totally changed my perspective on what I will be offering my customers from this point forward. I came here for information for a blog post. I had no idea of what I would be exposed to or how my attitude about pearls would take such a drastic change!

 

[newberry]

Justin thanks for posting. It is so nice to hear from another pearl farmer and see pictures of your beautiful pearls. There can never be to many pictures of pearls on this forum. I love the colors of your pearls.

 

[Justin Hunter]

Thanks guys - this has really been fun for me too!! Honestly - a bit shy. Having my name on the pearls - it just..... kinda makes me feel funny.

But now I have a question for you guys. Below is the tray of our Fiji Baroque's - I mean really zoom in and look at them. These left on the 28th of last month. I believe this picture contains:
1) under 12 mm 439 pcs at 694 grams
2) 12 mm and above 144 pcs at 300 grams (or something like that).
What are they worth?
Should my price be "dictated or influenced" by Tahiti Auction price?
Should I get value closer to White or Gold South Sea?

Or should i just say.... "screw them all" ...and keep them under my bed and look at them when I get up everyday, and show them to my friends while having drinks and watching the sunset?

Just want you to walk in my shoes - and give me some advice on how I can maximise these amazing gems. Because referring to these as "Tahiti" means people want to apply those prices to these - I would rather keep them under my bed.

Our auctions which we did for years in Japan with Aquatec International - was pretty fun. Honestly, looking at people's faces like Any Mueller, Alex Vock, Hajjar's, Jorg Gellner, Hahn, (team) Mikimoto........ and seeing them try and figure out where to start was hilarious (its like a high stakes poker game) - But trust me - they did not even know where to start bidding.!!! But, the point was at those auctions our base price was tied to Tahiti - we would do pretty good, but not good enough for my babies.

So give me some advice. Love it and thank you.

 

[pattye]

Justin,
So these beauties are on their way to HK? Or Japan? I feel you are doing the right thing to brand these as Fiji Pearls, so to differentiate by their unique colors. Some of us, though, have the barest knowledge of the auction process in terms of guessing a value. Can you please tell us more about that? Do you set a baseline price? I've read that some auction lots don't sell at all. Think I'll sleep on this challenge and guess tomorrow!

We want our pearl farmers and their teams to thrive, not just survive.

 

[Icyjade]

Thanks for your delicious pictures. Especially that bowl of keshis... I can imagine myself spending hours going through each one of them to visualise turning them into beautiful earrings, pendants or rings.

Do the wholesalers brand your pearls as "Fiji pearls" when they sell them? I have to confess that I am asking as I see some pearls that have Fiji pearl coloration at my local fair, but am told that they are Tahitians when I ask.