Saving an island jewel

Pearl farming is important for the Cook Islands economy. Photo / Supplied

For the past two years, New Zealand-based branding company Brian R Richards has worked on rescuing an industry critical to the Cook Islands.

A decade ago, the pearl industry was worth $18 million to the Cooks' economy, but now it's pushing to make $3 million.

The Cooks' pearl industry is based in one of the remotest inhabited places on Earth: Manihiki, 1200km north of Rarotonga. Five years ago, Manihiki was home to more than 600 people, but numbers have dwindled to 350.

Pearl farming is precarious, says Raymond Newnham, who runs Moana Gems jewellers on Rarotonga, and was a pearl farmer in Manihiki.

Crippling storms such as Cyclone Martin, which ravaged Manihiki in 1997 killing 19 people and wiping out the farms' infrastructure, have taken their toll, along with bacterial disease in the lagoon and Tahitian competition.

In boom times, about 2000 farmers were getting an average price of $100 a pearl, but this has dropped to $25.

Richards says pearls became commodities with adversarial pricing along a fragmented supply chain, and cash-strapped farmers being played off against each other. Without viable pearl farming, the people of the northern Cooks face an uncertain future.

The Cook Islands Pearl Authority (Cipa) asked Richards' team to build a differentiated brand and marketing strategy for Cook Islands pearls to lift their profile, price points and returns to farmers.

Tahiti produces infinitely greater volumes, so Richards' strategy ring-fenced the top grades of Cooks' pearls only, creating the new Avaiki brand just launched to market.

Wholesale marketers were appointed to access high-end jewellers and retailers internationally, where the best prospects of high prices lie.

Avaiki-branded pearls are underpinned by a set of standards and a structured path to market.

The first step, in an industry not known for its collaboration or standards consistency, was getting players and the governing body to adopt quality consistency and stewardship standards.

A common pearl grading system and lagoon management plan to safeguard the resource were pushed through by Cipa, and enshrined by Richards' firm in an industry reform document and operating charter for all participants in the supply chain.

"The pearl project highlights work too often overlooked when companies come to branding to ensure its longevity, rather than just producing an appealing logo and slick literature," says Richards.

Funding for the project came from New Zealand aid exemplifying aid money going directly to helping a key industry "in a hand-up rather than a hand out", says Richards.