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Japan’s grape leap forward

The Ruby Roman grapes will be served at the restaurant of Hotel Nikko Kanazawa, in the prefecture’s capital city, in the coming days, so there’s still a chance to sample them if you can rise to the exorbitant price.

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Japanese have broken their previous records in paying extraordinary sums for fruit with a head chef in Ishikawa prefecture buying a single bunch of grapes for one million yen (USD 8,200).

A single bunch of grapes have fetched around 8,200 dollars in Japan, becoming possibly the most expensive grape variety.

The 700 gram bunch of the country’s prized Ruby Roman grapes, a speciality of Ishikawa Prefecture, contained 26 berries, which are prized in Japan for their large size and sweetness.

“With the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen bullet train line, I was told to win the bidding at any cost”, he said, suggesting a boom in the local tourism industry.

Earlier this year, a pair of Yubari melons from Hokkaido, northern Japan – considered a status symbol – were snapped up for a jaw-dropping 1.5 million yen. The first batch of fruit and other foods is thought to bring good luck in Japan, and often attract bids considerably above true market value at auction.

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For connoisseurs of eye-wateringly-priced fruit, Japan is Seventh Heaven.

The ¥1m bunch of grapes