Pearl Farm

We spent a day relaxing, then booked this tour from the Resort. From reading a book left in our room, we have pieced together the story of what seems to be a rather unique place. Jewelmer is a "fully vertically integrated company involved in cultivation, design, manufacturing and distribution of pearls". It was was cofounded in 1979 by a French sea captain and aviation pilot Jacques Branellec and Manuel Cojangco (whose family owns the Philippine beer San Miguel). They have the rights to use 8,000 hectares of ocean including Flower Island, the next one and the one that the pearl farm is located on. The area is essentially a nature reserve as pearls require a very clean water environment. We took a 20 minute boat ride over to see the farm and oyster "hatchery" which supplies the other 3 farms with baby oysters via helicopter. There are 266 employees living on site. Fresh water comes by pipeline from an adjacent island into a filtration system which supplies the Pearl Farm as well as Flower Island with potable water. The marine biologist explained growing baby oysters to South Seas golden pearl takes 377 steps and five years! Jewelmer only uses 2% of its pearl production in its brand of jewelry aimed at the "high end luxury market" and the rest is wholesaled off. A strand of pearls on display retailed at $30,000 USD. Additional inhabitants of the island were large fruit bats which were hanging in the mangrove trees nearby.Read more