GIA Tracks Traceability Tag in Cultured Pearls
September 18, 24
(IDEX Online) - GIA grading reports on cultured pearls will now include traceability information, thanks to a tiny chip embedded by a Hong Kong company.
The Fukui Shell Nucleus Factory has developed a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to authenticate and track pearls.
It's being rolled out to major pearl producers in French Polynesia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Japan and China.
GIA, which has been grading pearls - both natural and cultured - since 1949, will reference the tag in its reports.
"The integration of RFID details with GIA Cultured Pearl Reports represents a significant step forward in efforts to enhance traceability and transparency in the pearl industry," said Tom Moses, GIA executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer.
The Metakaku technology embeds a wireless RFID tag into the pearl's nucleus, with a reference tracking number. That data is detected by GIA using an RFID reader.
Pic courtesy GIA.