Less Is More
Environmental damage from pearl culture is minor compared with industrial emissions, heavy fertiliser runoff and untreated sewage that have fouled many Chinese rivers and lakes over three decades of break-neck economic growth.
Local governments are now under pressure to attack all sources of pollution.
Hit by the restrictions, as well as rising costs and falling prices, China's pearl output is expected to fall to 1,400 tonnes in 2008 and 1,000 tonnes by 2010, down more than one-third from last year, the Gems and Jewellery Trade Association of China said.
Lower production might not hit profits. Experience in other pearl-producing regions has shown that producing smaller quantities of higher quality gems can actually bring better returns for the industry as a whole.
"It's important that pearl farmers know that producing 100 kilograms of pearls is not more profitable than producing 20 kilograms," said Qiu Zhili, associate professor of earth sciences at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province.
In French Polynesia, where Tahitian pearls are cultivated, the local industry association compiles output plans and strictly regulates market access. Pearls that do not meet gem grade standards cannot be sold as jewellery, Qiu said.
The quality of China's freshwater pearls is starting to improve and if cultivated properly, with lower densities of mussels in ponds and longer cultivation times, experts said they could look more like the smooth, perfectly round saltwater pearls from Japan and the South Pacific that command far higher prices.
But that is not likely to happen either quickly or easily.
"I'd like to see output fall to 100 tonnes. Then our pearls would be priced at the same levels as Tahitian pearls and South Sea pearls. That would be great," said Du Kunlin, secretary general of Zhejiang Province Pearl Industry Association.
But he added: "Tens of thousands of pearl farmers live off of them. You can't just let only 10,000 of them survive."
