Yamagata cherries fetch record-breaking price at wholesale market’s first auction of the year

Here are some other food dishes that you could purchase with the same amount of yen.

As a former resident of northeastern “Fruit Kingdom” Yamagata Prefecture, the top producer of cherries in Japan, I often used to send locally grown fruit as gifts. There’s no way, however, that I would be able to afford the record price that one small batch of cherries recently fetched at an auction in Tokyo (sorry, friends).

▼ In Yamagata, you can even pick your own all-you-can-eat cherries in the greenhouses.

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On January 5, at Ota Market’s first wholesale auction of the year in Tokyo, produce wholesaler Funasho Group claimed the winning bid for Yamagata-produced premium Sato Nishiki cherries. 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of the fruit sold for its highest price ever–1.3 million yen (US$9,842), which is 100,000 yen higher than the winning bid last year.

▼ Sweet and sour Sato Nishiki cherries are widely considered to be the top cherry variety in Yamagata.

It’s also the fourth year in a row that Funasho Group has won the first shipment of Sato Nishiki cherries as part of their wish for everyone involved in the food industry, including producers, distributors, and consumers, to have a successful year ahead. The cherries were then promptly sold at Tokyo’s Yaoko Marketplace Higashi-Yamato branch on the day of the auction.

▼ Funasho Group managers who placed the winning bid

1.3 million yen is a staggering amount of money for a small box of cherries. To put that into some gastronomic perspective, that same amount of money could get you…

34 of these Huge Portion Steak Boxes…

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520 of these Super Colossal Mega Parfaits…

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…or 1,181 of these titanic katsudon bowls.

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Personally, I’d have to go with the katsudon to get the best value for my money.

▼ The most expensive single cherry you’ll ever eat!

We certainly hope that these Sato Nishiki cherries tasted sublime to their eventual buyer–especially considering our team of writers had trouble telling them apart from regular supermarket ones last summer.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times, SoraNews24 
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