CIBJO Releases Pearl Commission’s Special Report Ahead of Congress

(IDEX Online News) – CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, has released the seventh of its commissions' Special Reports ahead of the opening of the 2014 Congress in Moscow on May 19.

Prepared by the CIBJO Pearl Commission, headed by Kenneth Scarratt, the report considers the subject of a unified pearl grading system, which currently is being worked upon within CIBJO and which will be on the agenda of the Pearl Commission when it meets at the congress on May 20.

"A few pearl grading systems have been developed over the years, both as educational tools and for laboratory reporting," Scarratt writes. "Experience has shown that a universal grading system that covers nacreous pearls from all molluscs is a challenging task, as is the interpretation of the results."

Among the other subjects covered in the Pearl Commission Special Report are the separation of natural seed pearls from small non-bead cultured pearls in the Arabian Gulf market, efforts that have been undertaken to obtain natural pearls for scientific and gemological research, the state of the Australian South Sea cultured pearl industry, recent developments affecting the pearl sector of French Polynesia, and the CIBJO Pearl Blue Book.