In Reply to: maybe you should read this. posted by dccc on Friday, 14. May 2010 at 22:34 Bali Time:
believe everything you read on the internet.
That site is a fraud, it has copied bits of information about pearls from other legitimate websites. Take a look at this: http://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/pearl.html
Note the blurb about 'organic gems' virually word for word.
The contact address is Oklahoma USA for pete sake. Their statement that they culture freshwater pearls in Lombok is a flat out lie.
There is nowhere in Lombok where freshwater pearls are grown. The only pearl farms are the sea pearl farms, and they are small operations.
I challenge anyone to name me 1. a waterway in Lombok where freshwater pearls are grown in mussels, and 2. harvested and coloured
There are two primary importers of freshwater pearls to Lombok. One is Juita Baru who bring pearls directly from China. The other is Pak Yudi in Surabaya. Yudi has several agents who he flies back and forth to Surabaya weekly to bring pearls back to Lombok. His Chinese wife's family is in the pearl farming business in China. I believe Safrudin gets his pearls from one of Yudi's agents. Or from a freshwater pearl importer in Bali - but I suspect they are Yudi's pearls.
Just about everyone who sells pearls on the street are selling pearls imported from one of these two sources.