From the President of Gemworld International from last week's...

From the President of Gemworld International from last week's JCK article:

"What about the pearl market, which saw a dramatic increase in pricing last year?

Prices on the better-end South Sea, Tahitian, and akoya have been pushed up to high levels, but it’s not just because of demand in the Chinese market. The pearl industry was most susceptible to the mass disruptions during the pandemic because a lot of operations had to shut down.

Think about in the context of aquamarine. If were mining aqua and had to stop, the aquas are still in the ground. But if you’re culturing pearls, you have to tend to your production in the water, extract the pearls, and then keep that process going. Only Paspaley was able to get around it; they were only ones able to continue that operation. And it takes several years to get pearls.

Because of Covid, the pearl industry lost production and couldn’t immediately pick up where they left off. The cycle now has to play out over the next four to five years. There’s going to be less production and more demand, so prices will at the very least stay stable. It’s a matter of disruptions hitting the pearl market."