POTENTIAL OF COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF MABE PEARL FARMING IN VAVA'U ISLANDS, KINGDOM OF TONGA
TETSU YAMAMOTO1 and HIDEYUKI TANAKA2
“Mabe” is the Japanese name of the giant winged-pearl oyster which has been traditionally used for producing only half-round pearls, unlike other pearl oysters such as Japanese “Akoya” pearl oyster or black or silver-lip pearl oysters. Because of different structure of its internal organs compared to other pearl oysters, it has been technically difficult to produce round pearls by “Mabe”. Although half-round pearls are also being produced by other pearl oysters, especially black and silverlip pearl oysters, Mabe's half pearl colour is much different from others.
In Western markets, people refer to “Mabe” for all half-round pearls. In Japan, “Mabe” pearl means a half-round pearl made from “Mabe” pearl oyster. It is totally different from other half-round pearls in quality as well as market price. It is also said that Mabe colour is the most beautiful colour among the pearls. Because of the distinct colour, Japanese “Mabe” pearl farms have for years been trying to produce round pearls by developing new grafting techniques. This “Mabe” round pearl production has at last been achieved today in Japan but is not yet economically viable due to the low success rate. The consultant of this mission is now engaged in the challenge of making it commercially successful.
The South Pacific Aquaculture Development Project-Phase II (SPADP) sponsored this mission to Tonga in response to the request of the Kingdom of Tonga, to provide guidance to the ongoing experimental Mabe pearl farming programme in Vava'u, and to make a feasibility study on its further commercial development. The terms of reference of this study are to be found in Attachment 3.
1 Project Consultant, Takuyo Co. Ltd, Kumamoto, Japan
2 Chief Technical Adviser, FAO SPADP (II)
