Head chef of Hotel Nikko Kanazawa holding world’s most expensive Ruby Roman grapes ever (in Kanazawa-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture)
A single bunch of Ruby Roman table grapes fetched record-breaking JPY1 million (plus consumption tax) on July 9, 2015, at this year’s first auction in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. The record-setting bunch of Ruby Roman grapes was rated premium and weighted around 700 grams. Thanks to the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line, the selling price far surpassed the previous record of JPY550,000 logged last year.
Winning bidder Masayuki Hirai, head chef of Hotel Nikko Kanazawa, said that he wanted to buy the best bunch of Ruby Roman to get his guests see there is something very special in Ishikawa Prefecture. He plans to serve the grapes as a dinner dessert.
On the same day, 31 bunches grown by two local Ruby Roman producers were auctioned at the wholesale market in Kanazawa and sold for a total of JPY2,626,000 or JPY84,709 each on average at the wholesale market. The Ruby Roman producers’ group, the Ishikawa prefectural chapter of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (JA Zen-Noh) and the Ishikawa Prefectural government plan to sell 18,000 bunches of Ruby Roman this year, which is approximately 20% more than the previous year.
(July 10, 2015)