Although originally produced in Japan, 90% of the world's freshwater pearls now come from China.

Freshwater pearls are the "odd man out" of cultured pearling as they are not produced by the saltwater "Pinctada" family of pearl oysters. In fact, they are not produced by an oyster at all. In China, most cultured pearls are farmed in varieties of freshwater mussels such as Hyriopsis and Cristaria. Each shell can produce up to 100 pearls simultaneously.

Most freshwater cultured pearls are nucleated with pieces of mantle tissue ­rather than a round nucleus - placed directly into a mussel's mantle to initiate nacre production. As with Akoya pearls, freshwater pearls are not marketable for jewelry in their natural state, and require artificial enhancements such as bleaching, coloring, and polishing. As with Akoya pearls, the artificial color and luster can diminish quite quickly.

lVlost cultured freshwater pearls grow, irregularly shaped, to between two and five millimeters but, with improving production techniques, China now produces round white freshwater pearls up to 9.5 millimeters that compete with Akoya pearls. New farming and pearl-enhancement technology has enabled the Chinese to produce more round pearls and a whole new array of colors. Supply is plentiful and quality highly variable, with the volume of production measured in hundreds and sometimes thousands of tons. Consequently the price of freshwater pearls is much lower than other cultured pearls.

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