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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSingle tuna sells for record $1.76 million in sign of prices to come
Japanese sushi chain Kiyomura paid a record 155.4 million yen (US$1.76 million) for a single bluefin tuna at an auction in Tokyo on Friday, outbidding a Hong Kong-based competitor in a sign of the fishs ever-more-expensive future.
The buyer, Kiyoshi Kimura, acknowledged that the price was a bit high. It was nearly three times the previous record at Tsukiji, the worlds largest fish market, where most of Japans sushi is sourced. Fridays tuna auction was the first of the year, attracting heavy publicity, so the sale prices are inflated.
Nevertheless, the auction reflects a basic supply-and-demand problem: bluefin tuna populations are dwindling as Japans appetite for otoro sushi, taken from the tunas belly, continues to grow. Japanese consume 80% of the worlds bluefin tuna, though demand from high-end restaurants in the United States and Europe is also increasing. Environmentalists have long argued for stricter regulation of bluefin tuna fishing.
A scene from last years documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about an obsessive Tokyo chef, explains the tuna auctions at Tsukiji Market:
http://qz.com/40904/single-tuna-sells-for-record-1-76-million-in-sign-of-prices-to-come/
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Must be incredibly small servings at ridiculously high prices.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)He is selling it at the regular price he charges.
demwing
(16,916 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)But important to have on the day's menu.
Pass me a Kirin!
siligut
(12,272 posts)Looking for fame. An ultra-rich thing, which I know very little about. Don't they believe in fish farming?
jmowreader
(50,580 posts)Google "bluefin tuna ranching" and you'll see it's becoming pretty common to do.
siligut
(12,272 posts)Thank you jmowreader
jmowreader
(50,580 posts)A Japanese restaurant chain and a Hong Kong chain started going at it and...well, you know how it is.
I looked it up and did some numbers.
The fish weighed 489 pounds. The Japanese sushi wholesale buyers are big on buying WHOLE fish, with the guts still in them, so this fish was almost certainly presented that way at auction. Tunas are mostly meat, so about 80 percent of the fish is salable as sushi, or 391 pounds. That works out to $4500/pound or around $10 per gram. If they sell that as "the world's most expensive fish" they'll get $15 per gram, easy.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Also, my sushi chef friend tells me these really big tuna don't have the proper toro (fat belly) to sell. This really is just a pissing contest.
pscot
(21,024 posts)Gregorian
(23,867 posts)There may very well be a day when people are standing around with nothing to eat. It's so hard to watch, knowing full well that we're racing toward terrible times. People just don't seem to care or see.
It feels like watching someone who has been diagnosed with heart disease, and they continue smoking, drinking, not exercising. What kind of insanity is this.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)It's the tiny, tiny fraction of that number that think eating endangered species makes them look important.
Most of those seven billion people would be perfectly happy for just a steady diet of nutritious food, and don't demand ultra-rre critters for their conspicuous consumption needs.
Godhumor
(6,437 posts)The buyer ended up sending bits of the tuna to all his restaurants where it was incorporated into dishes for normal consumers.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)If I paid that coin for a tuna, you'd find me on the floor with a filet knife eating it raw by the handful.