Alfonso Llanes, Master Degree in International Development
According to NOVA contributor Fred Ward a gemologist and author of the book Pearls reports that starting in the 1990′s, China took the market by surprise with pearl products that are revolutionizing the practice with shapes, luster, and colors that often match original Japanese Biwa quality and sometime even surpass it. These freshwater pearls are round enough and good enough to pass as Japanese akoya.
The Chinese have in fact profoundly altered freshwater culturing, making saltwater and freshwater methods indistinguishable.
Natural freshwater pearls occur in mussels for the same reason that saltwater pearls occur in oysters. If foreign material, or a parasite, enters a mussel shell and cannot be expelled, the mollusk coats the intruder with the same secretion it uses for shell-building, nacre.
In the process of culturing freshwater mussels, workers make small cuts into the mantle tissue inside both shells, and insert small pieces of live mantle tissue from another mussel into those slits. That attachment alone is sufficient to start nacre production. Just like natural freshwater and natural saltwater cousins cultured pearl are composed of nacre.
The first cultured freshwater pearls originated in Japan soon after their initial success with cultured saltwater pearls, Japanese pearl farmers experimented with freshwater mussels in Lake Biwa, a large lake near Kyoto. The all-nacre Biwa pearls formed in colors unseen in saltwater pearls with a luster and luminescent depth that rivals natural pearls. Sadly, recent pollution and virus problems have diminished cultured pearl production and Japan is now relying more on Chinese cultured pearls to satisfy the needs of its domestic and international markets allowing many to be sold with "Japan origin" stated or implied. Today, Japanese freshwater cultured pearls come from Lake Kasumigaura.
China is now the largest producer of cultured pearls in the world. But pearl farmers are concerned about their future as they face increasing ecological problems and pollution of their fresh water sources.
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