Companies in northern Quang Ninh province, one of the largest oyster cultivation areas in Vietnam, plan to ship 1,100 kilos of pearls abroad by late this year, according to the provincial Fisheries Department.
The department also said that the province fetches up US$4 million from pearl exports annually.
The province currently houses ten companies raising oysters for pearls with 55 million farmed oysters, of which 17.5 million are now forming pearls.
The ten companies are based in Ha Long City, the famous port of Ha Long Bay. Two of them are fully foreign-owned companies, one company has an 80 per cent foreign stake, and the others are Vietnamese.
Raising pearl oysters is a common practice in Asian countries.
Endowed by nature, Vietnam has a coastline of thousands of kilometers, with many ecological areas appropriate for raising pearl oysters.
According to recent surveys, many pearl oyster varieties have been identified along the coast from Quang Ninh province in the north to Kien Giang province in the south. Among them is Pinetada Martensi Dunker variety, which appears in Haiphong, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Vung Tau-Con Dao and Binh Dinh provinces.
The industry, however, has not developed strongly in Vietnam due to a lot of difficulties in applying technical advances. In addition, the state has not yet issued preferential policies to encourage fishermen to develop and replicate pearl business models.
In related news, China annually produces 75 tons of oyster pearls, generating jobs for tens of thousands people. Pearls from the Hainan Island attract many customers due to their good quality and different sizes as they are created from the Pintada variety of oyster. It takes three years for the variety to complete the process of pearl generation and pearls there attract many customers, thanks to their different sizes.
Liberated Saigon
Vietnamese
