Poe Rava Nui to hold all 3 of next year's pearl auctions in Hong Kong

(Tahitipresse) - Poe Rava Nui hasannounced plans to hold all three of nextyear's auctions in Hong Kong, making 2007the second straight year that none of theTahitian cultured pearl farming cooperative'sauctions will be held in Tahiti.

The announcement was made after PoeRava Nui used "special prices" to sell 82% ofits Tahiti cultured pearls during a Juneauction in Hong Kong, according to JewelleryNews Asia (JNA) reports on the Hong Kongmagazine's Internet website.

The four-day June auction marked Poe Rava Nui's debut in Hong Kong after traditionally holding 32 internationalauctions in Tahiti. The cooperative that represents mostly medium size pearl farms in French Polynesia movedits auction to Asia for the first time in February. But the auction held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, on MainlandChina only sold 63.3% of its 262 lots and 79.5% of its 157,616 Tahitian pearls put up for sale during the 33rd PoeRava Nui Auction.

Poe Rava Nui thus has decided to follow the pattern that Robert Wan began several years ago of holdingTahitian pearl auctions in Hong Kong and Kobe. Wan, the world's largest producer of Tahitian pearls, now holdsthree auctions in Hong Kong and two in Kobe each year.

The June Poe Rava Nui Auction in Hong Kong earned 3.37 million, or US$4.32 million, from 40 buyers out ofthe participating 68 companies, JNA reported. The average price per pearl sold was 23.10, or US$29.56. Theaverage per gram price for sold pearls was 14.96, or US$19.14. Those prices reflected an average overbiddingof about 15%, Poe Rava Nui President Alfred Martin told JNA.

"We set lower reserve prices this time as a means to promote our first auction in Hong Kong and to attract morebuyers to our next auction," Martin said. "We aim to obtain good, if not high prices in order to satisfy pearlfarmers, resulting in their supplying us with more goods in the future."

The 35th Poe Rava Nui International Auction has been scheduled for Sept. 2-4 and will also be held in Hong

Kong right after the Concorde Auction, Martin told JNA. He said the venue is like to change to the Eaton Hotel InYaumatei on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.Poe Rava Nui also plans to organize 36th international auction in Kobe, Japan, in October, Martin announced.He told JNA his cooperative had gained support from major pearl dealers in Japan for the Kobe auction.

"Tahiti will have big harvests from July to September," Martin said. "We will select mainly the larger pearls fromamong those collected before mid-August and bring them to Hong Kong in September, and keep the smallersizes and the harvests gathered after mid-August for our Kobe auction in October."

Poe Rava Nui's June auction priced the Tahitian pearls in euros for the first time. That followed the precedent setlast year by Robert Wan, who holds yearly Tahitian cultured pearl international auctions in Hong Kong and Kobe.Martin said Poe Rava Nui would stick with the euro currency from now on to avoid risks stemming fromfluctuations in the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar.

Martin told JNA that Hong Kong buyers were satisfied with the quality of the Tahitian pearls during the Juneauction. "The overall quality of the pearls was not as good as at the previous auction in Suzhou. This time about80% of the pearls were of C or D quality, but their coating and color were okay. Many buyers preferred theselower luster but clean goods to spotted goods."