Home ›› 02 Sep 2021 ›› News
Suitable warm weather coupled with round the year growth period for pearly mussels and pearls leave a bright prospect for pearl culture in Bangladesh.
This aquaculture with high economic value is becoming popular among the youth as freshwater mussels can be cultured in any kind of water body, like puddles, ponds, rivers, lakes, reservoirs.
Mohammad Zakaria Hasan Joni, a third-year bachellor’s student in Kalapara of Patuakhali, began culturing pearl with only Tk 20,000 capital on a pond sized about 10 decimal two years ago.
He collected 700 freshwater mussels from nearby water bodies and released those in the pond after seeding calcium bar and waited for a year to get perfect and matured pearl. He was almost 100 per cent successful as he got nearly 700 pearls in the first batch. The next year he seeded calcium bars in a mussel twice a year that doubled his harvest.
He sells the pearls at Tk 250 to Tk 300 per piece to local jewellers and they eagerly wait for Zakaria’s harvest. He also runs a Facebook page Business Parel 24 to market his produce.
Now Zakaria has Tk two lakh in hand from selling pearls and no longer require hunting for a job after completing his studies. He wants to develop his career in pearl culture.
Pearl culture is a very profitable aquaculture as there is no cost for mussels’ food. Mussels make their own food.
Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute in Mymensingh initiated a project — Pearl Cultivation Technology Development and Extension — in 2012 and it trained more than 3,000 people who are now culturing pearls in different districts across the country. Now pearl culture spread to Nilphamari, Magura, Lalmonirhat, Pirganj, Khulna, Gazipur, Brahmanbaria, Pabna and Rangpur.
Mohammad Nazmul Hossain, scientific officer at the BFRI, said that Bangladesh’s weather was very much suitable for pearl culture and it became popular in recent years. Around 100 entrepreneurs are now culturing pearl professionally across Bangladesh and an estimated 1000 people trained by the institute are doing it in an amateur style, he said.
Mohammad al Mamun from Atgharia of Pabna remained unemployed after his graduation in 2019 despite trying heart and soul.
He began looking for ways to pearl culture after seeing a video on YouTube and found a training institute run by Pearl Cultivation Association of Bangladesh in Gazipur who offers a course on pearl culture at Tk 1,500.
Getting trained there, Mamun started the pearl culture with only Tk 20 thousand on a 15 decimal pond and released about 1,000 mussels there collecting them from nearby water bodies. After one year, he got around 3,000 pearls and earned around Tk 6 lakh from his first delivery.
He sells pearls to the local jewellers and some jewellers in Kolkata.
One of his friends Sagar Islam lives in Dubai and he has a jewellery business there. Mamun also sends pearl to Sagar.
Mohammad Tarif Ahmed Sourov, president of Pearl Cultivation Association of Bangladesh, at Pubail in Gazipur, said many educated unemployed people were coming for pearl culture and they were doing well. The association also runs an institution on pearl culture and so far trained 3,000 people.
As pearl could be cultured in any kind of water body, it is easy to extend in rural Bangladesh with low input and high output, he said.
The use of pearls as a gem has a very long history. It is referenced holy scriptures like the Quran, the Bible and various ancient Hindu texts. Pearl is the only gem that is produced by living creatures and requires no cutting or polishing.
Zahedul Islam, owner of Zahedul Jewelry at Kalapara in Patuakhali, said that there was huge demand of pearls across the country but the jewellers do not get pearl as per their demand.
“We collect pearl from local cultivators and after processing, we sell those,” he said.
Abul Hossain Bulu, president of Noakhali Jewellers Samiti, as pearl culture was new in Bangladesh, the demand for cultured pearls was not that high. He said there is a huge prospect of export of cultured pearls.
Abul Hossain, however, said alongside freshwater pearl culture, there is also seawater pearl culture in
Cox’s Bazar. Those pearls are of very high quality and have high demand at home and abroad, he said.
According to the Business Wire, the global pearl jewellery market was boosted for a large-scale shift to the e-commerce platform. The market size is likely to reach $20 billion by 2025.
The global pearl jewellery market is likely to grow at a CAGR of over 13 per cent during the period 2019-2025, the Business Wire said.
