If you've ever shopped at Whole Foods, you know that produce prices can get a little steep every once in a while. Sure, sometimes raspberries are out of season, but a $10 price tag can still seem a little ridiculous. Well, for some fruit-buyers that's pennies in the bucket, especially compared to the bundle of grapes that just sold for $11,000 at an auction in Japan this week.
According to the Guardian, the prized grapes were of the Ruby Roman variety—a bulbous purple grape grown in Ishikawa prefecture on Honshū island. For a grape to earn the prestigious designation of being a Ruby Roman, it must weigh 20 grams and have a sugar content of at least 18 percent.
"According to the Ruby Roman club website run by the Ishikawa prefecture, the cultivation process began in 1992 when seeds of the Fujiminori variety were sown," the Guardian writes. "Over the years, they were then cultivated into the Roman Ruby variety, which was named after submissions from the public in 2004. The first grapes went on sale in 2008, and prices have been rising ever since."
This year's buyer, Takamaru Konishi, was a representative for a grocery store in western Japan, and won the auction with a max bid of 1.1 million yen, or nearly $11,000 USD. To break it down, that's roughly $350 for each of the 30 grapes in the bundle.
Still, that wasn't the only small fortune spent on fruit this week. Another auction for two melons closed for 3 million yen ($29,849 USD), according to Grub Street. Rare fruit is seen as a status symbol in Japan, and buyers are often willing to go to great length to procure the perfect produce.
"These are truly Ruby Roman gems,” Konishi said. “We will display them at our store before giving our customers a sample taste."
Something tells us that 2 Chainz—the Most Expensive Shit host who was recently seen munching on gold-dusted popcorn with Stephen Colbert—has already booked his flight to Japan for next year's auction.
[via Grub Street]