It’s safe to say the 1930s were probably not a great time in Qatar. Since the 10th century, one of its main sources of revenue had been the pearl farming industry, but in the 1920s Japan flooded the market with cultured pearls, thereby crushing the industry in the Gulf. Luckily, by the 1940s, Qatar discovered its vast oil and gas reserves and it is now one of the richest countries in the world.
To put things into perspective, the global pearl production market is worth around $400m a year, while Qatar Petroleum pumps around 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, which, even at recent sluggish prices of $50 a barrel, gives it well over half a billion dollars a week to work with.
But all is certainly not lost for the Qatar pearl industry as Doha is now using its vast petrodollars to revive its old tradition. It has one very powerful supporter: Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, the second wife of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar.
“Sheikha Mozah came to Tahiti on a personal visit with her husband for a meeting and she told us she wanted to revive the pearl industry in her country,” says Audrey Tcherkoff, CEO Middle East of Robert Wan, one of the most prestigious and well-respected pearl producers in the world.
“Now we are going to celebrate our third anniversary in June and we have 35 people working there and we are harvesting our pearls there every year between February and March. I can’t disclose the amount of investment,” she adds of the recent partnership the brand signed with Qatari officials.
“What is great about Qatar is that they are really into their heritage and it is very important to them to promote that [the pearl industry], which is a real pride. In 1926, when the Japanese pearl arrived on the market it destroyed it completely. Soon after, they found oil and gas and they were lucky.
“They had long dark years but reviving [pearl farming] is reviving the pride of the country. That amounts to a lot of site projects and we are also talking about a museum and programmes such as student exchanges to send Qatari students to Tahiti to train them.”
The journey to reviving the Qatar pearl sector is, quite literally, a long one and the fact Sheikha Mozah convinced her husband to fly all the way to the remote island of Tahiti in French Polynesia shows how dedicated she is.
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“When you arrive in Tahiti after 24 hours journey you are at the end of the world and after four hours of blue sea you suddenly land on the volcanic island, this paradise where only 300 people live to produce the most beautiful pearls in the world… It is so remote from any source of pollution we are completely protected, but then as it is so remote it brings a lot of challenges,” says Tcherkoff.
A pearl is described as a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusc, such as an oyster. It is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. Ideally, pearls are perfectly round and smooth, but they can come in a whole range of colours and shapes.
Robert Wan is one of the most famous producers of Tahiti black pearls, which are between 6mm to 20mm in size and are especially known for their strong colours, such as silver grey-green and black, with nuances in green and peacock. They are believed to have the best lustre of all pearls and, as a result, are known as the “Queen of pearls”.
Pearls have been a part of Polynesian culture long before Wan or Sheikha Mozah ever set foot on Tahiti. One pearl farmer, Jean Claude Brouillet, brought a sample of black pearls to a series of top jewellers in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo in the early 1970s.
At first, the industry was dubious as to the authenticity of the mysterious black pearls but once European experts confirmed they were not fakes they soon became popular. Spotting a chance to enhance local employment, the French Polynesian government aggressively encouraged the development of new pearl farms.
Wan, a French Polynesian resident of Chinese descent, bought a small local firm and by 1976 he was one of the country’s largest producers.
“Mr Wan’s story is quite fascinating,” says Tcherkoff. “He started pearl farming 40 years ago and we have been so far the largest producer of black pearls. We had mostly been in the wholesale business, selling our pearls through auctions each year… I would say that any black pearl you see in Asia, be it Cartier or Tiffany or any of those brands, has come from our farms.
“About nine years ago Mr Wan decided to start up the retail business and started to keep for himself the most exclusive pearls, so it means today the Robert Wan brand really carries some of the most exclusive and unique pieces.”
Wan’s move into the retail sector is also likely to have been out of a need to diversify the business as the pearl industry has suffered from oversupply, increased competition from cheaper Asian competitors, a slump in demand due to the global recession and the rise in production costs.
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As far back as 1979, small producers began to notice Wan’s success and set up smaller rival outlets, encouraged by initiatives from the French Polynesian government. This resulted in a massive pearl run in the 80s as hundreds of pearl farms were set up. This led to overexploitation of the waters surrounding the Tahitian archipelago, causing nearly half of the estimated 7 million oysters to die during 1985 and 1986.
“The pearl is the only gem coming from a living animal so I don’t like to compare it even to the diamond. I love diamonds but they are only rocks. Pearls are a real living gem. We recommend people who have pearls to wear them as much as possible as we believe the more they are in touch with your skin the more they are alive,” Tcherkoff points out.
What was happening in Tahiti was also mirrored in Asia with Japanese pearls flooding onto the market. Over a short period, Japan racked up production from one tonne per year in 1952 to 230 tonnes by 1967, essentially killing off production in the Gulf. Today, this overproduction has been reined in by economic forces but Japan is still the dominant player.
It is estimated that, for the year 2013, the total turnover of saltwater pearls was approximately $397m. Japanese saltwater Akoya pearls accounted for $111m and around 25 tonnes of pearls. While white South Sea pearls accounted for 12.75 tonnes they are more valuable and were valued at $192m. Finally, the black South Sea pearls generated $94m from a harvest of 15.75 tonnes.
The increase in production of Tahitian black South Sea pearls and the increase in local producers has meant Robert Wan has seen its share decrease over the years. “We used to be the largest producer of pearls and produce about 80 percent of worldwide production of black pearls for the first 28 years, but over the past 12 years lots of very small producers arrived and opened small farms. So we are not commanding 80 percent any more but what is great is we have managed to set up a strong infrastructure so that we still command the high end,” Tcherkoff says.
One way Robert Wan says it has been able to combat against the small local producers in Tahiti and the Japanese mass producers is the fact they have a long heritage and have the time to dedicate to the pearls to get the largest and most exclusive pieces.
“The trend for 17mm pearls takes about six years to grow. To be able to wait six years for your pearl you have to be financially strong. All the small producers can’t do that so we have a huge advantage,” she says.
With the connection to Qatar and its aim to rejuvenate the industry in Doha, the Middle East is now a big player for Robert Wan and accounts for around a third of its current business.
“We opened in our first store in Abu Dhabi in 2007 in Emirates Palace. I was based in Paris and I really wanted to go and live there. I was 26 and had no attachment so I said I would go. I fought for six months as everyone thought I was too young. I won and I arrived in Abu Dhabi and the store was a real success and won us a lot of visibility and exposure,” Tcherkoff recalls.
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“After two years, I decided to open the Dubai office as it really made sense — the biggest mall in the world. The next step is to open a shop in Qatar and another in Dubai. Saudi Arabia is obviously the biggest market and we are approaching them with private presentations.”
A Robert Wan store is also being planned in Egypt, but the one market that she cannot enter is Bahrain: “There is huge resistance… It has still an embargo on pearls so we cannot import pearls, they are still very protective of their heritage.”
In fact, it was announced in 2013 that Japanese scientists were teaming up with the Bahrain government to try and revitalise the Gulf’s pearl industry. Bahraini scientists and their counterparts from Japan’s Fisheries Research Agency (FRA) launched a research project to study 30,000 Akoya pearl oysters located from 10 to 25 metres beneath the surface.
The Bahrain government was funding the research and the aim was to discover why there has been a decrease in natural pearls in the area. As part of the project the team will look at ways to protect the natural pearl oysters from being eaten by marine predators.
Another big obstacle Robert Wan faces is the rise of cheaper fake pearls from Asia, Tcherkoff points out. “The freshwater pearls from China, that’s a terrible thing as the way they are produced is very cheap as after only two months they have a pearl. It has impacted in a negative way the global pearl market. But also, beside that, we have the plastic pearls and lately Chanel and Dior have been using these huge pearls. Which is good as it brings pearls back into fashion, but for people with a slightly higher budget they want to go for the real thing.”
While the diamond and gold industries are heavily regulated and have minimum industry standards agreed by the various stakeholders, Tcherkoff says this is not the case within the pearl industry.
“That is the big mistake. All the producers, and there are only a few in Australia, Philippines, Japan and Tahiti, unlike the diamond industry, where De Beers has really managed to control everything but we have not all managed yet to sit around the table and control the industry. That is why the price per pearl has dropped massively due to mass production… There is no international body that really has control,” she laments.
Despite the various threats facing the industry, Tcherkoff reports one factor that is helping to give the industry a shine: the growth in the number of men wearing pearls.
“In Tahiti I would say its 50:50 and you are not considered a real man if you don’t wear it.
We have amazing clients, like Pierce Brosnan, who of course played the role of James Bond. Here in the Middle East it is starting to grow… about 20 percent [of clients] are men.”
Last year, the British Council and Qatar Museums Authority teamed up to showcase some rare and exclusive pearls as part of an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. The development of the Dubai Pearl Exchange as part of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre has also helped to spur interest in the sector.
With patrons and fans including iconic figures from Coco Chanel and Elizabeth Taylor to Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II, the industry will always be beloved of those interested in high fashion and timeless pieces. And with Qatar putting its petrodollars behind rejuvenating the sector, it is only a matter of time before the market enjoys a renaissance once again.
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