Even though today they are cultivated on pearl farms, beautiful cultured pearls are rare. And because they are rare and beautiful, they are valuable.
Consider these facts:
1. Of the hundreds of thousands of prepared mollusks suspended in cages, around 50 percent die. This is mainly because pearls have an intimate relationship with nature. Pearls are fragile and subject to damage as a result of natural disasters, weather and climatic changes, attacks by starfish or from being smothered by a certain type of red plankton. This plankton appears to turn the sea red and is called "the Red Tide". During bad red tides or typhoons, entire harvests can be destroyed, creating shortages of some types of pearls and steeply higher prices for those remaining. These problems have been plaguing the Japanese pearl crop for the past few years. Facing 80% losses in 1999 due to oyster deaths from a virus, unseasonably warm weather and increasing pollution, Japan’s pearl industry has taken several years to recover. Chinese akoya pearls did not face the same virus or pollution problems and are getting much more plentiful on the market. While some small size - 5 to 51/2 mm - are fairly scarce, sizes of 6 mm to 7 mm are readily available, and they have greatly improved in quality and lustre.
2. Because the mollusk is so small (Japanese mollusks, usually the Pinctada mollusks, grow to only about 10 centimetres or 4” in diameter), the size of the pearl can be a substantial irritation indeed and can be the cause of the mollusks premature death. In fact, many cultured pearl mollusk die when a nucleus is inserted or when pearls are later removed. As you can see, the creation of a pearl is a miracle of nature and would not exist if not for the tiny mollusk.
The oysters left in the baskets produce the following: around 10 percent poor quality, 20 percent saleable pearls, 15 percent good quality pearl and 5 percent excellent pearl. The poorest quality pearls are sent for crushing and processing into fine calcium carbonate powders used in some cosmetics (face powder and creams) and medicines.
Because nature forms a pearl, no two pearls are exactly alike. It takes an expert eye to match pearls for a necklace, bracelet or earrings according to size, shape, lustre and color. The Cultured Pearl Information Centre estimates that pearl dealers sort through roughly 10,000 pearls to find enough matches for just one necklace.
