Narrator: This is the most important moment
in the process of creating a South Sea pearl:
the moment when Heri inserts the nucleus into an oyster,
around which a pearl will form.
And if he's imprecise,
the resulting pearl may come out misshapen.
The goal is this: a near-perfect round pearl,
with a large 20-millimeter diameter.
That's more than twice the size
of the more common Akoya pearl.
And this single pearl can sell for $1,500,
compared to $75 for a high-grade Akoya pearl.
A necklace of near-perfect South Sea pearls
can cost over $200,000.
So, why is making these pearls so much more difficult?
And what makes them so expensive?
South Sea refers to the southern portion
of the Pacific Ocean.
In these waters, just off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia,
pearl farms like Afdhol Pearl are growing cultured pearls.
These are pearls that require a human
to put something inside an oyster
instead of harvesting naturally occurring pearls.
And South Sea pearls are the most expensive variety
of cultured pearls.
That's in part because of how long it takes
to make a South Sea pearl.
While some freshwater oysters can churn out
dozens of smaller pearls within three months,
it takes about five years
to cultivate a single South Sea pearl.
The oyster it comes from, the Pinctada maxima,
can only make one at a time.
And only a fourth of these oysters survive cultivation.
That's why the pearl farmers have to go to great lengths
to keep the oysters alive.
It starts in this highly controlled laboratory,
where lab technicians must create the perfect conditions
for oyster larvae to grow into healthy,
pearl-producing adults.
They have to maintain a room temperature
of exactly 20 degrees Celsius
and feed the larvae the phytoplankton they need to grow.
To do this, they combine salt water from the South Sea
and sodium hydroxide
and store it for five days until there's enough plankton.
Lab techs feed the plankton to nets of baby oysters
and monitor their growth for about 45 days.
That's around the time they reach
at least 1 millimeter in diameter
and are old enough to be transferred to sea.
The oysters are transferred to save on the costs
of rearing bigger oysters, which can get expensive.
Narrator: In the South Sea, the oysters get the warm waters
and food they need to mature.
But this is also where most of them will die
without producing a single pearl.
Narrator: That's why pearl farmers
have to check on the oysters monthly,
to ensure they're still growing, eating, and healthy.
They pull the nets of oysters up from the sea
and clean the shells.
This helps prevent predators from feeding off the oysters
and eventually killing them.
Narrator: After up to two years of nursing,
when the oysters are large enough, implantation can begin.
For cultured pearls,
implantation is the most important step.
When a nucleus is implanted,
the oyster sees it as an irritant
and reacts by building protective layers of nacre around it.
This becomes the pearl.
Heri is demonstrating where the nucleus is implanted
on an opened oyster.
Narrator: He tears the oyster's gonads
and injects the nucleus in the middle.
He then adds saibo under the nucleus.
Saibo is a mantle tissue cut from another oyster
that surrounds the implanted nucleus.
It's essential to the pearl quality.
And without it, the oyster won't produce any pearls at all.
Heri is the only person Afdhol trusts with this step.
That's because the nuclei don't come cheap.
Mahmud buys the nuclei from Japan.
And their cost, in addition to import taxes,
takes 20% of his profits.
And he says getting import permits
for these nuclei is difficult,
preventing him from buying enough to expand his business.
After the nucleus is implanted,
special attention is paid to how the nacre grows around it
to avoid a misshapen pearl.
They're working towards a large,
almost perfectly round pearl.
Workers invert the oysters
and put them in their protective nets to bring back to sea.
The South Sea pearl's unique soft, satiny luster
and thick nacre are a result of the warm waters it grows in.
And a thick nacre means a large pearl.
Heri says they must flip them regularly
so the nacre grows evenly.
Narrator: After 40 days, workers remove the oysters
from the sea and clean them weekly.
Heri checks the implanted oysters monthly
to see how the pearl is developing.
This is done for up to two years
before the first pearl can be harvested.
Narrator: Heri implants the same oyster two more times.
Each time, the pearl Afdhol harvests is bigger.
By the third harvest, the pearl can reach
over 20 millimeters in diameter
and over 8 grams in weight.
But as much as pearl farms like Mahmud invest
in the intense care needed to raise the oysters,
the outcome is never guaranteed.
Mahmud says only 20% of the oysters that survive
make the most valuable kind of pearl,
almost perfectly round, lustrous, and large.
Mahmud grades the pearls based on size,
luster, shape, and color.
The larger, rounder, shinier,
minimally blemished pearls get the highest grade.
That can be AAA or AAAA,
depending on the producer.
Mahmud then sells them to jewelers like Riana Meilia,
who fashions the pearls into necklaces, earrings, and rings.
Riana seeks out the highest grade she can find,
but it isn't easy.
Narrator: Lower grades are more available,
but they're rougher, asymmetrical, and lack shine.
And in the jewelry world, those are the least desirable.
But even the highest-grade pearls are not perfectly round.
That's because even though they're farmed,
they're still natural pearls.
So finding a near-perfect pearl,
let alone enough to make a string necklace,
is extremely rare.
It took nine years for Riana to find
enough AAA-grade pearls to make this necklace.
She's finally able to sell it this year
for $36,000 to a local buyer.
That makes sourcing these expensive pearls
worth it for Riana, who relies on farmers
to continue to produce high-quality pearls.
But Mahmud says pearl farmers
need more support from the government,
specifically around making nuclei readily available.
Narrator: With this kind of support,
pearl farmers say they could increase their production
and make Indonesian South Sea pearls
more readily available internationally.