Wild pinctada radiata oyster banks off the UAE. (Photo: Henri A. Hanni)

(IDEX Online News) – Pearls collected from the warm, salty waters off the coast of the United Arab Emirates are to be sold at auction for the first time in the country's history at the Dubai Pearl Exchange in Jumeirah Lakes Towers.

 

"The UAE produced the finest pearls in the world for over 7,000 years," said Mohammed Al Suwaidi, one of the founders of RAK Pearls, producer of the jewels up for sale on Sunday (June 9). "That stopped in the 1940s with the discovery of oil and the Japanese invention of cultured pearls. Now, with this sale, UAE pearls are available to the market again for the first time."

 

The salty warm waters of the Persian Gulf produce valuable colorful pearls. "Some of the consignment for sale this weekend appear to glow gold, others silver, more yet seem to possess a blue inner light."

 

There are also several bags of tiny misshapen pearls, or baroque in pearling parlance, which are known as keshis, a by-product of the cultivation process and close to being natural pearls.

 

There are 4,000 to 5,000 pearls ranging in size from 7 millimetres in diameter up to 13mm.

 

There are at least 50 buyers from all over the world interested in the pearls, according to Franco Bosoni, the DMCC director of commodities services.