REGIONAL> Development
Pudong sees the largest pearl market open
By Chen Qide (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-03 13:52

Shanghai opened its largest pearl market in Pudong yesterday at a cost of more than 20 million yuan.

The 1,600-square-meter Yada Pearl Market at the Science and Technology Museum sells several thousand kinds of pearl provided by the pearl-raising farmers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, said Ding Meiming, manager of the Shanghai Yada Pearl Marketing Business Administration Company Ltd.

Ding said the market links with pearl-raising farms and pearl-processing workshops, so that it is able to offer customers with quality but much-lower cost pearls.

The pearl market is part of the 57,000-square-meter Shanghai Asia-Pacific Plaza which contains 1,000 vendor stands.

Dai Zhibin, assistant to the plaza's general manager, said the pearl market is expected to sell pearls valued at more than 100 million yuan annually if business goes on smoothly.

"Otherwise, sellers will not win profits," Dai said.

At present, more than 10,000 customers patronize the market daily, of whom 80 per cent are from overseas, who become a major source of purchasing pearls at the market, he said.

The Shengda market including the pearl part will have annual sales of 500 million yuan, Dai said.