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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Maui Divers employee Cindy Ching holds strings of black Tahitian pearls in the company's showroom.
Lusting for the luminous
luster of black pearlsAn internationally reported account of plummeting wholesale black pearl prices sent a girlie gasp and anticipatory "ooh!" toward the ceiling of the Star-Bulletin business section. Surely that must mean a corollary decrease in retail prices, rang the collective estrogenic hope.
A June 9 story on NZoom.com said wholesale prices are less than $12 per gram, a third of the price of five months ago and 80 percent below levels of a few years ago.
But Bob Taylor, president of Maui Divers of Hawaii Ltd., would not use the word "plummeting" to describe wholesale black pearl prices. Besides, they are sold by the millimeter, not the gram, he said.
Albert Lui, president of the Jewel Box stores said, "no way" of the 80 percent figure.
Maui Divers is a big buyer of black pearls. "In addition to selling them in our stores, we wholesale to Macy's West," Taylor said.
He confirms that prices have been on the decline and are perhaps 70 percent lower than five years ago. To counter the slide, some governments are taking steps to firm up prices and restrict sales of smaller pearls, according to articles in jewelry industry publications.
Further questions were deferred to Senior Vice President Carl Marsh. "He's been buying black pearls for a long time," Taylor said.
Auctions haven't been meeting expectations and large quantities have not been purchased, Marsh said. "Because of the economy and war and stuff, purchasing was down and bid prices are a little lower."
That's also true of white South Seas pearls from Indonesia and Australia, he said. And prices of cultured and freshwater pearls from Japan aren't doing very well either, as much of the demand is being met by similar products from China.
"Generally speaking prices have been coming down gradually over a period of time, they're probably around the production cost level," Marsh said.
It's possible that to bring down production costs farmers won't seed as many oysters in the future, he said. If production slows, supply will decrease and prices may go back up.
But if the farmers aren't producing they won't have an income stream, right?
"These are generally people who own land or other things, other businesses down there (in the South Pacific). What it will affect is the workers," Marsh said.
Clearly, in order to keep pearl farmers' employees' families fed, we must continue to buy black pearl jewelry. But what about those retail prices, will they drop?
"No, because of the increased price of gold," Marsh said. Most black pearls are set in gold, which has gone up in the five years that the luminous luxuries have been losing value. Diamond prices have also been going up; they are often included in black pearl settings.
"Everything costs a little bit more as we go along," Marsh said.
If one only wants loose black pearls, savings will be realized, said Lui of the Jewel Box, but you can't wear them by themselves, he chuckled.
"In a piece of jewelry, a ring, a pendant, a pair of earrings, only one factor, the pearl part (has decreased in price), not the gold part, not the diamond part, not the labor part, so as a result, it didn't go down that much," he said.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com
