Belpearl Auctions is the world’s leading auction in gold, black and white South Sea pearls. Each and every pearl presented for sale at Belpearl Auctions is from traceable origin producers across the Pacific. In fact, Belpearl Auctions provides an integrated platform for South Sea pearl producers to auction their harvests directly to the world marketplace. Today, Belpearl Auctions has in excess of twelve auction partners spread across four countries and conducts private auctions events in Hong Kong on a quarterly basis. From production, professional grading, auction events, appraisals all the way to sales, Belpearl Auctions’ teams are involved every step of the way to ensure the highest quality control of pearls and to bring the right merchandise to the right buyers. Their list of clients is broad and includes prestigious names from the global jewellery industry, Tasaki International being one of them!
Michael Hajjar has been at Belpearl for the past 13 years and is currently the Director of Business Development at Belpearl Auctions. He has vast experience in grading and auctioning of pearls as well as addressing farming concerns for pearls from some of the most remote areas of French Polynesia, Indonesia, Fiji, Philippines, Japan and Myanmar. I recently found out that Michael had moved to Toronto. So, I reached out to him to ask a few questions about Belpearl Auctions and how the company is faring and adapting to this new normal of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Belpearl Auctions is a platform for South Sea pearl producers to auction their harvests directly to the world marketplace. Could you tell us a little bit about how Belpearl Auctions started as an organization?
The idea for Belpearl Auctions was formed in early 2008 after visiting Myanmar for the first time and witnessing the outstanding quality of pearls that were quietly being produced there. Although there had already been domestic pearl auctions in Myanmar for a number of years, we felt there was an opportunity to represent Burmese pearl producers on the international stage, and we conducted our very first Myanmar pearl auction in Hong Kong in 2013.
Could you explain what a Pearl Auction is and how Belpearl Pearl Auction Events come about?
A pearl auction is an event where you can inspect a pearl farms harvest in its entirety, and bid for the chance to win “lots” . Each lot is selected from the harvest based on several criteria, like size, shape, color and surface. We typically hold auctions ever quarter, allowing our auction members the chance to see new harvests from a variety of pearl farmers from across the Pacific.
One of your Instagram posts states that your partner pearl farmers have environment sustainability as a top priority. What actions have the pearl farmers been taking to create a sustainable environment on their pearl farms? How has Belpearl Auctions supported the pearl farmers in these endeavours?
Sustainability is often an overused term especially when applied by businesses around the world, but in the case of pearl farming there is a lot that is inherently true about it. Pearl farms operate on a simple principal, and that is that the environments in which they operate must be kept as pristine as possible since only an ecologically balanced environment can give oysters the best chance at producing the highest quality pearls. To that end, pearl farms are incentivized to by their very nature to be very careful about development. Sustainable Actions include the legal enforcement of large developmental exclusion areas around pearl farms, careful control of oyster populations (preventing biomass accumulations) as well as the implementation of energy saving technologies.
Different pearl farming organizations have different strategies but fundamentally the concern for the environment is not only based on being ecologically conscious. It’s also simply better for business. As an auction organization, our success is based in the success of our auction partners, and we do our best to encourage farmers to always focus on long term quality over quantity, which is fundamental to responsible/sustainable pearl production.
How has the Covid 19 pandemic affected your auction events and what changes have you made or are planning to make to adapt your auction events to this new pandemic-related normal?
As with nearly every business on the planet we are still coming to terms with the fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s hard to know how it will affect our business in the long term. In the short term however, there has been a renewed interest using the internet as a means of hosting a virtual pearl selling event, however it remains to be seen if it is a viable long term solution, since you can only get so far with photos. Even today, pearls are notoriously difficult to photograph and that causes very large differences in valuations.
The pearl farms Belpearl Auctions supports are spread all over a vast swathe of the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. What challenges, if any, have the pearl farms faced due to the Coronavirus pandemic? How have they tried to overcome those challenges?
Challenges have been enormous and widespread. For example, French Polynesia (Tahiti) has been literally cut off from the world for months. Some flights have only recently resumed, and logistics and customs have not been able to cope yet with figuring out how to transport pearls safely and efficiently. Furthermore, Tahiti relies on foreign pearl seeding technicians for the vast majority of its pearl farms, and they remain overseas as global travel remains tightly restricted. The same is true for pearl producers in across many South East Asian countries.
Given this pandemic and its related lockdown, travel restrictions, quarantines etc. what, in your opinion, is the outlook for pearl auctions for the future, especially in the next year or so?
Despite all of this, we have been able to connect with our customers by having a presence in Japan and Hong Kong. Our Hong Kong and Chinese traders are still able to visit domestically, and our Japanese traders are still able to place orders and visit our offices in Japan. So we’ve cobbled together a kind of temporary solution until we see some kind of resumption of global travel. Lets see.
Thank you, Michael, for taking out the time to answer my questions! All the best to you and to Belpearl Auctions! Also, welcome to Toronto! It’s good to have you here in TO 🙂
Thanks! Happy to be here!
Featured Image: Sorting Tahitian Pearls by Size and Colour, Belpearl Auctions, Hong Kong
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