Akoya Pearls vs. Freshwater Pearls

I get asked a lot "why are freshwater pearls less expensive than Akoya pearls?" I am here to answer that question for you, but first let me give you a little background information to help you understand and appreciate cultured pearls as well as understand the difference in price.

First and foremost there is A LOT of work that goes into culturing pearls, it’s not just wham bam thank you ma’am, sit and forget about it for six months and then retrieve the pearl.

Secondly, we need to talk about the fact that these are two separate species of mollusks that create either Freshwater or Akoya pearls. The process of nucleating them is different, the finished product is different, the time spent in the mollusk is different, and how many nucleations a mollusk can take are different.

The nucleation process is a delicate process that takes a professional to correctly nucleate (basically impregnate the mollusk with a bead or piece of tissue that then causes the mollusk to react and grow nacre, thus creating a pearl) the mollusk without damaging the animal as well as performing the nucleation so that it will produce a usable, gem quality pearl.

Once the mollusk has been nucleated, it takes roughly 6 months and up to two years for ONE pearl to form. Aside from the long length of time needed to create a pearl, the farmers need to tend to their mollusks daily, changes in water temperature, red tides, etc. can be disastrous for pearl farms. It is not uncommon for the farmers to move their mollusks into “safer” waters in order to continue the pearl growing process. If a storm hits and wipes out the entire farm, all of those mollusks are lost along with the potential pearls inside of them, once again incurring more costs.

Each type of mollusk is only used a certain number of times before it "retires”

• Akoyas you’re looking at 1-5 nucleations, but usually only one

• South Sea mollusks are used 1-4 times

• Tahitian mollusks are used 2-3 times

• Freshwater mollusks are used approximately 40-50 times and they produce more than one pearl within the mollusk

This right here in my opinion the main reason why freshwater is so much less expensive…you’re getting so many more pearls out of a mollusk than you are with your salt water mollusks. Don't be fooled though, there are plenty of GORGEOUS and I mean GORGEOUS freshwater pearls on the market that owe their unique colors to natural processes and they can command a high price as well.

Fun Facts

• Out of the approximately 20,000 different species of mollusks only about 20 produce pearls

• On a good day, the nacre thickness on an Akoya pearl is only 0.5mm thick

• A matching strand of Mikimoto pearls can take up to ten years to put together

• Each time a mollusk is nucleated and produces a pearl, the next time around the pearl will be bigger

• Akoyas have a substantial price jump when you hit 8.00-8.5mm in a hank

• The nacre on a Tahitian pearl is approximately 2.00-3.00mm versus the 0.50mm of an Akoya

• The United States invented knotting pearls

• You will always pay more money for a matched strand than a graduated strand of pearls