Ha Long Bay, a natural wonder of the world, is known to many tourists for its amazing natural beauty. This place is also bestowed by nature with a product that not everywhere can get, namely pearl.
As one of the most successful OCOP products of Quang Ninh province, Ha Long Pearl is both an agricultural product, a scientific and technical product, and a tourism product. Ha Long Pearl is a meaningful souvenir for tourists, especially international tourists, when they arrive in Quang Ninh.
Developed on the basis of the Vietnam-Japan Pearl Company, the first joint venture breeding cultured pearl oyster between Vietnam and Japanese partners since the early 90s of the last century, Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company is a unit with extensive experience in oyster breeding and pearl culture. Over the years, along with the inheritance and application of advanced culture techniques by experts from Japan, a country that invented the pearl oyster breeding profession more than 100 years ago with many worldwide recognized pearl brands, the company has researched and successfully built an artificial reproduction process and collected and created rare species of oysters with high nacre coating speed and beautiful pearl colors to bring high-quality pearl products to the market.
In particular, the company has perfected the technique of breeding the Ma Thi oyster, a precious oyster species with high export value. Therefore, Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company has become the unique unit in Vietnam with closed implementation of these Japanese technological processes and is one of the province’s first five science and technology enterprises to successfully implement the technique of breeding and cultivating new oyster varieties.
The company has a pearl oyster breeding fishery on Ha Long Bay, formed from the idea of commercial pearl business combined with tourism by Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company. Mr. Le Nam Trung, COB of Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company, said: When talking about the pearl oyster farming village in Ha Long, many people probably still find it strange. But about 40 years ago, Quang Ninh people formed the first pearl oyster farming villages in the Northeast region of Vietnam. Inheriting advanced culture techniques from Japanese experts along with favorable natural conditions, over the years, the company has researched, applied science and technology, successfully built an artificial reproduction process, and collected and created oyster species that are able to adapt to the culture environment and have high nacre coating speed and beautiful pearl colors. Currently, the company is the first unit in Vietnam to completely master all stages of the pearl oyster breeding and cultivation process.
Visiting the company's pearl farming facility, tourists can witness with their own eyes all the processes that form a precious pearl, from culturing to harvesting and manipulating. Especially before the actual visit, tourists will visit a museum that introduces images of the pearl production process. Then tourists visit the farming and manipulating area and end with the display area for finished pearl products and jewelry. Here, tourists will be meticulously introduced to each production stage by a team of attentive and thoughtful staff and guides. Tourists can freely learn about and choose for themselves beautiful, high-quality pearls that are sophisticatedly and gorgeously crafted. This is also an original tourism product and an attractive destination for tourists to discover interesting things about the pearl oyster breeding and cultivation profession at sea.
Currently, every day, during the tourism season, the pearl production facility on the bay welcomes about 30–50 groups of tourists, most of whom are international cruise tourists.
Pearls are a natural product, but unlike other types of pearls, they are generated from living organisms. Mrs. Huong and her husband are both attached to and mature through the practice of oyster breeding and pearl culture, so they treasure sea oysters. Sharing about her work, she said that the oyster’s growing up, maturing, and undergoing artificial pearl implantation is a natural process. Human impact only accounts for 10–15%, including gathering, cleaning, and implanting the nucleus to create pearls. The worker is like a surgeon and must be trained very meticulously because implanting the nucleus so that the oyster can survive and create pearls is an extremely difficult technique. If this stage is not done well, the oyster can push the nucleus out or die.
In order to harvest Akoya pearls with a size of 3–9 mm from adult Martensi oysters, from the moment the nucleus is implanted into their body, oysters need 24 months to secrete calcium, wrap the nucleus in layers, and create pearls. After the pearl is removed, the oyster also ends its life process. However, every product from the oyster has its own value; nothing is thrown away. Pearls are used as jewelry; oyster meat is processed into dishes with original and delicious flavors; oyster shells are used to make handicraft products... Even when alive, oysters only eat plankton and seaweed and are a very good water filtration and flow cleaning machine.
Recalling the early days of "starting-up" from pearls, Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Huong shared: Previously, the company's pearl products were mainly exported rawly to markets in countries and territories such as Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China, and some European countries. However, the economic value is low, and when exported, Quang Ninh's pearl products no longer have their own brand. With the concern to create and affirm the Ha Long Pearl brand in the domestic and international markets, the company has changed its strategy. The company not only artificially reproduces the breeds but also completely implements the stages of culturing and crafting products, creating the first closed process in Vietnam for breeding cultured pearl oysters. Thereby, Ha Long pearl products have their own brand.
In 2015, Ha Long Pearl products of Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company were recognized as OCOP products of Ha Long City. Following that, Ha Long Pearl was respectively certified 4 stars and 5 stars at the Provincial-Level OCOP Products Evaluation and Ranking Competition in the next two years. In 2021, the product also met international quality standards, including those of Japan, a country with strict criteria for pearl quality.
However, this is not an easy process. The desire to build the Ha Long Pearl brand requires more than just passion. Mrs. Thuy Huong said that "The farm is located in the middle of the sea, with countless risks of natural disasters. There was a time we had to pay the price when wind and storms damaged the entire raft system because we did not have much experience farming at sea, and then we were empty-handed and became debtors. But also because of passion and the locality’s attention, along with the encouragement of friends, we continued to stand up. Now, the company has successfully researched and mastered the closed production process, from breeding and cultivating to processing and manipulating pearls, that not every business can do."
Regarding pearl design, according to Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Huong, first of all, it is mandatory to come up with a product idea and then give it to a professional design unit to create a model. Aesthetic pearl jewelry needs to go through many meticulous stages, combining aesthetic and technical elements so that the product is both beautiful and soulful. Each product must have its own impression.
As of now, Mrs. Huong cannot remember how many products she has designed. "It's too much! Products are designed depending on the time, season, and individual requirements of customers. The line of customers we welcome is also very diverse. They come from different countries, and each country has different tastes and aesthetic tastes. The product that I still remember vividly to this day, containing both emotion and a turning point in my pearl design career, is the Miss Vietnam Sea 2016 Crown. From design to final product, it took us three months, and more than 10 people worked at high intensity. Of which, I myself and COB Le Nam Trung, also my husband, directly took the pen to sketch the first strokes. After many discussions, until the idea coincided and met the criteria, such as being associated with the sea and in harmony with the beauty of pearls, the product was finally completed to the love and satisfaction of everyone. For me personally, the crown still holds a unique position and is the most beloved product because of its beauty and the combination of ideas, passions, and the mark of a year and a time," Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Huong expressed her emotion.
In 2021, three products of Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company, including the Akoya pearl set, the SouthSea pearl set, and the Tahiti pearl set, achieved national 5-star OCOP certification. Of which, Akoya pearls are cultured from the small-sized Pinctada fucata martensi oyster variety, creating small-sized, neutral-colored pearls. Southsea pearls are cultured from the Southsea-Pinctada maxima oyster variety, which is the largest in size among all types of oysters and has a warm, luxurious golden color and a very natural, vivid, and outstanding luster. Finally, Tahitian pearls are cultured from the Tahiti-Pinctada Margaritifera oyster variety, originating from France’s Polynesia island, and are widely used in high-end jewelry because they create luxurious products.
These three products are the crystallization of decades of experience in oyster breeding and pearl culture by Mrs. Huong and her husband and are applied with Japanese implantation technology and experience. To cultivate high-quality pearl oysters, the company has built a semi-intensive pearl farming area on cages (more than 23 hectares of water surface), which ensures the requirements of the ecological environment and is certified ISO 14001-2015 for environmental management systems. To obtain quality pearl products, the company has continuously perfected the closed implantation process, from breeding and cultivating to processing pearls.
“Ha Long Pearl being recognized as a national 5-star OCOP product is a great honor for us, a tribute to quality and brand. With this title, we will have many advantages in communicating and marketing our products. However, this title also poses challenges for us, which are to overcome ourselves, to increasingly improve product quality, and to update new designs so that pearl products meet the tastes and aesthetic tastes of tourists from all over the world. Thereby, Ha Long Pearl is worthy of being a 5-star souvenir product of Quang Ninh," shared Mrs. Nguyen Thuy Huong.
Ha Long pearls, with advantages of farming environment and scientific and technological application in farming, have many outstanding points and are assessed by experts to have high purity, thick nacre coating with multiple luxurious, attractive natural colors such as gold, lapis lazuli, cherry pink, mercury gray, etc. This is not only one of Quang Ninh's original tourism products, serving the needs of buying high-end jewelry as a souvenir for tourists coming to Quang Ninh, but it is also exported to the Japanese market and some other countries in the world.
Currently, Ha Long Pearl Joint Stock Company has two pearl farming areas on Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, along with two points displaying and selling pearl products on Ha Long Bay. In addition, the company also has two other locations, which are My Ngoc Shopping Center at the company's headquarters in the Don Dien area, Ha Khau ward, Ha Long City, and Vincom Ha Long Trade Center. Of which, My Ngoc Shopping Center is the company’s main point, where the final pearl products are crafted and perfected when exported to the market. Seeing the pearl-making process, visitors will certainly go from one surprise to another. From rudimentary pearls, through the skillful hands of the craftsman and modern technology, they become sophisticated pearl jewelry sets, diverse in design. Ha Long pearls are considered to have high purity, with many luxurious and attractive colors such as gold, lapis lazuli, cherry pink, mercury gray, etc. Every day, this Center attracts a large number of tourists to visit and shop.
