Freshwater pearls have become more favorite

Together with saltwater pearls, which are getting scarce, freshwater pearls have become more favoured not only in the jewelry industry but also in cosmetics production.

Vietnam has natural conditions favorable for freshwater pearl production thanks to the large surface water area and diverse clam species. However, making pearls is a career which requires complex techniques and huge capital and very few people have succeeded with clam farming for pearls.

The Ninh Binh provincial science and technology department cooperated with a local enterprise to build a pearl brand. The owner of the enterprise is Dinh Van Viet in Khanh Loi commune, who owns more than 3,000 hectares of surface area for clam farming and earns VND3-3.5 billion from pearls every year.

Viet said he spent 10 years and had many failures researching clam farming and pearl creation techniques. His biggest asset is his Japanese fluency which allowed him to meet Japanese specialists who feed clams for pearls in Ha Long.

In 2012, he found four freshwater clam species suited to make pearls in Ninh Binh province. He decided to transplant pearls from the pearl nucleus bought from Vietnam Pearl JSC into 1 ton of clam collected from farmers. He also tried an embryo implantation method.

In early 2014, Viet sent pearl samples to Japan to Inoue Hanzu Company for analysis and quality examination. The products were praised by Japanese specialists in five criteria - thickness, shape, color, gloss and brightness. 

Viet is the only person in the world who can transplant up to 40 pearl nucleuses into the body of a live clam. Even the specialists in China, India and Japan dare not take risk transplanting more than one nucleus into one clam, because any mistake in the process will kill the clam.

After 10 years of research, Viet found positions in the clam body through which he can transplant nucleus. He has transplanted nuclei of up to 10 mm with a high rate of survived mother clams of 70 percent. 

After feeding for 1.5-2 years, one pearl can be sold for nearly VND1 million. The pearls with beautiful colors and large sizes (15 mm and more) can be sold for VND7-8 million.

Viet has also succeeded in creating pearl-plated products. A fashion company specializing in tailoring ao dai (long dress) has ordered 20,000 pearl-plated jewelry items to be attached to high-end clothes.

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Thanh Mai