One Chinese influencer/actress has changed the supply of quality pearls around the world.
Everyone knows that the pandemic changed the supply chain and the availability of most everyday products. But currently the price of pearls is soaring and inventories plummeting. Each year jewelry designers and suppliers for high end/luxury products attend the Jewellery and Gem World Hong Kong show in search of pearls. These buyers were astonished to learn that prices have doubled and in some cases tripled since last year.
What is the cause? It is a well-known fact, restrictions of the pandemic prevented employees from getting to work. Pearl farms were no different. Employees could not get to the farms and nucleate the pearl oysters therefore, there were fewer pearls to harvest. Add to the lack of harvested pearls a single Social Media Influencer drove the shortage of freshwater pearls that has been felt around the world, resulting pearl shortages and has driven up prices. Chinese actress and social media influencer, Ni Ni, created a series of posts wearing pearl jewelry and her Asian followers and market gobbled up anything with the word pearl even buying up entire harvests before the Hong Kong show opened.
How long will pearl fever last? There is no way to see into the future, but it is worth clutching your pearls for now.
