In 1997, Rosario Autore and his brother Nino founded a company for pearl culture at the old site in Dungunab Bay. There were apparently both Japanese, Sudanese and Indian partners and William Reed was also a part ner. Initial reports indicated that Pinctada maxima im ports from Australia were used. It is more plausible that the local Pinctada margaritifera is used instead, as is in dicated by the owners. The salt content of the Red Sea would make it difficult for Pinctada maxima to adapt. Autore is one of the leading figures in the Australian cultured pearl industry, and has made a name for him self with his Perlautore International Company, which successfully markets Australian cultured pearls.

The first harvest amounted to 12,500 pearls. The first sales were made in 1999/2000 through the Michael
Bonke Company from Deggendorf in Germany, which had managed to secure the exclusive rights for the first two years and still holds a monopoly for obtaining the pearls. The company concentrates on the German mar ket. The second harvest amounted to 4,500 pearls.

A total of 150,000 animals were operated on in autumn 2000, and the estimated harvest of 45,000 to 60,000 pearls was due in February 2002. Although the first and second harvests produced numerous Keshis and circle pearls, the third harvest revealed an improvement in quality (personal communication, Michael Bonke). The year 2002 saw however high mortality rates and the production does not exceed 1 0—20,000 pearls per year since. The CIBJO congress 2001 in Paris gave the name “Red Sea Cultured Pearls” to the new product, after re jecting the original name “Oriental cultured pearls”, which had been chosen by the Bonke Company.

The pearls are found mainly in green and yellow hues, and the first yield also contained pistachio and apricot colours. The second yield also included golden and champagne-coloured pearls. In addition, there were a number of light and dark hues which resemble both South Sea and Tahitian cultured pearls and have a good luster that is attributed to the relatively high water tem peratures in the Red Sea. In 2005, the situation has stagnated to a certain point. The investors seem to have become reluctant and William Reed has withdrawn his part of the capital. The Sudanese partner Mohammed Osman who holds 51 per cent apparently wants to get more involved in the marketing and selling of the pearls. The farm continues to work but did not improve or increase its production. There had been attempts to produce lighter colours which were however not accepted by the international clients who preferred the greenish-yellowish hues.

The everyday life of the Pearl farm consists of various work. The chief work is the cleaning that shell panels. The water in the bay is so nutrient-rich that panels after two to three weeks it is so felted that the shells hardly still water and/or food wars must, therefore every two weeks the panels with speedboats are in-collected and either into “cleaning the unit” at the beach, or to the work boat, which is driven “Salam”. There they are released from the sea-seaweed and returned then their master place.

… at those the individual panels are hung up. With rough sea the anchorages tear themselves loosely, or the buoys run full waters and panels tear themselves loosely. The Bottomlines is can the anchorages attached at concrete-supported columns at the sea-bottom also here separate.

Into the Dongonab bay native shell is a subspecies „marga ritifa “. Thus of the shell relatives very close, with which in French Polynesien „the tahiti bead is bred “, it is smaller than „pinktada the maxima “, which in Australia „the South Seas cultured pearls “produced and a completely strange colouring has. Their Perlmutt is in the basic clay/tone pistaziengrün. The whole chromatic spectrum is enough however from platinum grey to brown yellow.

In the “Cleaning unit” panels are cleaned:

. Walter Reed, a pioneer with forty years of experience in culturing pearls, is behind the new pearl farm. He was also the co-founder of the first pearl farm in French Polynesia. In 1996, he was requested to develop a peal industry in Sudan. Reed chose as his partner the autore group, which controls roughly 40 % of trade with cultured South Sea pearls from Australia. The joint venture was granted the monopoly to fish and unrestrictedly for pearl mussels and to cultivate them in the Dongonab region. The first 7,000 mussels were operated in March/April 1997. The first harvest – 4,500 pearls – then followed in autumn 1999. It was only then that the full spectrum of colours in the new pearls became visible. This variety was due to the local pearl mussel (a variation of Margarita). Martin Wolf is responsible for sales, as long as he accepts the full harvest. His company cooperates with Michael Bonke in this respect. The first string of pearls from new culture project was sold in Hof in summer 2000, the second in Grünwald and the next in Neumarkt. The highest price paid so far for a string of pearls cultured in the Red Sea was generated at the Sotheby’s November Auction in the same year. In view of the fact that the maximum size of pearls in the first harvest of South Sea shells is 12 mm, the initial pearls were comparatively small. However, a small number of pearls that were operated a second time yielded larger pearls. A total of 8,200 pearls had been harvested by the end of 2001. The figure had risen dramatically to roughly 45,000 at a value of roughly 3.9m US $ by 2002. The number of large pearls also rose at the same time.