Indonesian Pearl Cultivation Association

Indonesian South Sea Pearlspride of a nation

Indonesia’s seas produce pearls whose beauty and value are known around the world. Through education and information, ASBUMI supports the growth of Indonesia’s pearl industry and invites care for the ocean in which pearls grow.

Discover ASBUMI

Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of South Sea Pearls

43%

Of the world’s South Sea Pearl supply

Bengen et al., Mutiara Laut Selatan Penghela Ekonomi Biru Kepulauan Nusantara

67.2

Million USD pearl exports, 2025

Statistics Indonesia (BPS)

Provinces with pearl farms

ASBUMI distribution map, 2023

Active member companies

ASBUMI member list, October 2026

Each figure carries its own source beneath it.

01Not The Same Shellfish

Pearl oysters and edible shellfish two different businesses

Both are bivalves, both filter their food from seawater. What separates them is not only the animal but what is harvested, how long the wait is, and how the result is judged.

Pearl oyster

Pinctada maxima

Harvested for: the pearl, the nacre the oyster lays down around an implanted nucleus. The meat is not the point.

The wait: two to four years after nucleation, and there is no way to shorten it.

The work: every oyster is handled individually, from the implant to routine cleaning.

Judged on: lustre, shape, size, colour, surface cleanliness and nacre thickness. One pearl can be worth many times the one beside it.

Edible shellfish

Green mussel, blood cockle, table oyster

Harvested for: the meat, as food.

The wait: months, and a rope is cleared in one harvest.

The work: grown and lifted in bulk rather than one at a time.

Judged on: weight, size and freshness. One batch is largely uniform.

One oyster, from larva to ready for the nucleus

Pearl oyster larvae under the microscope — Larvae in the hatchery

Pearl oyster spat on a collector line — Spat settled on a collector line

Young pearl oysters in a net — Young oysters in a pocket net

An adult Pinctada maxima oyster — Adult oyster: over 10 cm after 1–1.5 years

Stages and sizes from ASBUMI's Proses Budidaya Mutiara material.

What they share matters most to the sea: both live on what the water carries, so both demand clean water. The difference is that a failure in an edible crop shows within a season, while a failure in pearls only becomes visible years later.

02About ASBUMI

The official body for Indonesia’s pearl industry

ASBUMI (the Indonesian Pearl Cultivation Association) is the home for pearl-farming businesses across Indonesia, focused on developing and preserving the South Sea Pearl.

The association was founded to advance the national pearl market. Working alongside government, industry players, and pearl advocates at home and abroad, it carries a vision to protect the sea and strengthen Indonesia’s pearl trade.

Promoting responsible pearl cultivation
Driving grading and quality standards
Connecting pearls with the blue economy

03Explore

Farming, pearls, and the sea that keeps them

The three things this site is about: how pearls are farmed, what makes them valuable, and the sea all of it depends on.

A farmer lifting a pocket net of oysters

Farming

The process, the techniques, the farm environment, and the people who farm.

Learn about farming

Pearls

Types, quality, character, uses, and trade.

Get to know pearls

A pearl oyster in its net in clear water

Marine conservation

Ecosystems, sustainable practice, and the blue economy.

About our seas

04From sea to pearl

Four years for a single pearl

From choosing the seed to the harvest, farming a pearl takes about four years. The oysters are tended at sea one by one, and every stage has someone looking after it.

More about pearl farming

Spat

Spat is collected from the wild or raised in a hatchery. The availability of good broodstock decides everything from this point on.

Grow-out

2–3 years

Oysters hang in net panels from floating rafts, cleaned of biofouling on a cycle, until the shell reaches 20–25 cm.

Nucleation

A shell bead and a piece of mantle tissue are implanted surgically. The technician's skill at this stage decides whether the pearl will be worth anything.

Nacre deposition

2–4 years

The oyster coats the nucleus in nacre, layer upon layer. There is no way to speed this up; all that can be done is keep the water and the oyster healthy.

Harvest

Pearls are lifted, washed, sorted and graded. Most farms see a profit no earlier than the second or third harvest.

Scroll to follow the stages

05Four Pillars

Pearls do not grow from one party alone

Developing the national pearl sector rests on four stakeholders. What follows is each one's role, not a promise ASBUMI makes on their behalf.

Formal recognition of the association, and support for promoting Indonesian pearls at home and abroad.

Government

Under the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries

Formal recognition of the association, and support for promoting Indonesian pearls at home and abroad.

Farmers

Carrying members’ aspirations and needs forward, and giving them a forum where issues are resolved.

Running pearl oyster cultivation professionally, from hatchery through harvest and grading.

The public

Education, empowerment and CSR

Not only knowing the South Sea pearl and telling it apart from freshwater pearls. Pearl farming also empowers the communities around each farm: it employs local people, develops skilled workers who turn the pearl oyster into derivative products, and runs CSR programmes.

Universities & research institutes

Collaboration on research and the development of knowledge

Research on hatchery technique, broodstock improvement and disease management, and drawing younger people into marine cultivation.

06Farming Regions

Fourteen provinces, one strand

South Sea Pearl farms run from Sumatra to Papua, following the water that is still clean. The order is west to east, the way a strand is threaded along the equator.

06 / 14

West Nusa Tenggara

Nusa Tenggara

The most productive South Sea Pearl waters in the country. Lombok is known as the Pearl Island.

Cultivation sites recorded by ASBUMI, 2023 · ordered west to east

Lustrous South Sea pearls in their shell — Lustre

Loose pearls in white, silver and gold — Colour

White and golden pearls on a shell — Shape and size

07Quality Standards

Six parameters, one reading ISSP

Indonesia South Sea Pearl (ISSP) is the quality designation for pearls grown in Indonesian waters. Every pearl is judged against the same six parameters, so buyers and the trade can read its grade rather than guess it.

Luster

The deep return of light that ordered nacre produces

Size

Typically 9–12 mm and can be larger, the size South Sea Pearls are known for

Shape

From perfect round to baroque, valued precisely for being singular

Colour

White, silver, to the natural gold of gold-lipped oysters

Surface

How clean the surface reads of spots, marks, and pits

Nacre thickness

The layer that sets both durability and the depth of the luster

IQPL

Indonesia Quality Pearl Label

Pearls meeting the ISSP criteria carry the IQPL, the official certification marking a pearl as a genuine Indonesian South Sea Pearl of the highest grade. The label is not a marketing device but an assurance that the value a buyer pays for is actually in the pearl.

08Indonesian pearl craft

Pearls, jewellery for everyone

Necklaces, earrings, brooches and mother-of-pearl craft from Indonesia's South Sea pearls: worn formally or every day, set with gold and gemstones, and made by Indonesian craftspeople.

See the whole gallery