Technology of cultured pearl production

Abstract

In the recent years, there has been an increasing awareness on the possibilities of pearl culture in countries which had not hitherto shown any interest. To che some examples, the Republic of China has already made inroads into the freshwater pearl market and the United States of America is getting into it (Ward, 1985). The traditional Japanese production of marine cultured pearls has declined since 1966 (Mizumoto, 1979). Production in countries in the Indo-Australian Archipelago from Burma to Australia has also declined. On the other hand, some of the island countries in the Western Pacific are concentrating on production of highly priced pearls.