Stimulating investment in pearl farming in ... - World Fish Center

Page 10alternative products. Most medium- and large-scale pearl farms work with local or overseasdesigners to develop their own jewellery lines for sale through retail outlets on the farmsthemselves, or in local hotels and tourist stores.In countries with significant amounts of tourism, pearl farms can generate additional revenueand value by organising farm visits and tours that take in operations such as spat collectingand processing. As well as generating additional revenue for the farming operation, toursprovide a good way to expose visitors to jewellery products and increase on-farm sales.Where tourism forms part of the pearl farm’s activities, proper attention needs to be paid toenvironmental management to ensure that visitors perceive the farm as a clean and healthyoperation which is not polluting or harming the marine environment.Pearl farms also produce significant amounts of pearl shell, which is in high demand overseasfor jewellery, furniture inlays and other decorative purposes. Export of shell is permitted insome countries but may be prohibited where there are concerns about management of wildpearl oyster stocks. Farmed shell are hard to distinguish from wild shell, so allowing theexport of farmed shell provides an opportunity for illicitly harvested wild shell to enter thetrade.4. PEARL FARMING IN SOLOMON ISLANDS4.1. Opportunities and prospectsPearl farming has several characteristics that make it a particularly suitable form ofdevelopment for the Solomon Islands:• it uses species that are native to Solomon Islands, so there will be none of theunwanted environmental impacts that may arise when new species are introduced;• culture techniques are well-established, and have been shown to be economicallyfeasible and socially and culturally appropriate in other Pacific Island countries;• pearl farming can be carried out in rural or remote areas, providing developmentopportunities away from the urban centres;• spat collection and some aspects of farm maintenance are labour-intensive andlow-technology, and can be carried out using unskilled or semi-skilled rurallabour. Other activities, such as those involving diving, can also be carried outusing local labour after suitable training by the farm operator;• the products (pearls and pearl shell) are non-perishable, low in volume and high invalue, a major advantage in Solomon Islands where domestic transportation linkswith rural areas are unreliable and quite costly;These characteristics are favourable for the development of a rurally-based pearl farmingindustry in which small-scale operators and large investors can profitably participate.In general black-lip pearl farming has been most successful to date in atoll locations, wheregeomorphologic features favour the retention of spat and consequently give high levels ofspatfall. However black-lip farming has also been carried out successfully in Fiji and PapuaNew Guinea, which, like Solomon Islands, are high island countries with mainly open reefand lagoon systems. White-lip pearl farming is not associated with atoll locations, and occursalong the coast of Australia as well as other locations in South-East Asia.Initial questions about the feasibility of pearl farming in Solomon Islands centred around theavailability of spat in the wild, since, given the open nature of the reef systems, it was notknown whether these would be retained in coastal waters in sufficient numbers to permitcommercial farming. However trials carried out by the WorldFish Center indicate that black-