The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the few places in the world where master sushi makers can acquire bluefin tunas for their specialties, on auction. As we’re at the beginning of 2013, the traditional auction has already taken place, with quite a fuss.
One bluefin tuna, weighing 222 kilograms (or around 489 pounds), caught off the coast of Northeastern Japan, was sold for a mind-boggling 155.4 million YEN (that means around $1.76 million). Such a massive price has completely smashed the previous record for last year, when a 269 kilogram (593 lbs) bluefin tuna was sold for $736,000. In 2011, a 342 kilogram (754 lbs) fish was sold for $396,000. This opens some rather interesting perspectives for 2014.
Same as last year, the winning bidder was Kiyoshi Kimura, the operator of the 46-store Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain. He admitted “the price was a bit high”, but also that he wanted to “encourage Japan”. Not mentioning the price he was willing to ask per portion of sushi, he further declared that he was planning to serve the newly acquired fish to customers later on Saturday.
During last year he made quite an interesting statements: “Rather than having it taken away overseas, I wish for Japanese people to eat good tuna together.”If the perspectives remain similar, he may win similar auctions during the upcoming years as well.
Those who enjoy sushi as well as those who enjoy preparing it prefer tuna for its unique texture and superb taste, even though green folk have raised an exclamation mark upon the wild stocks of the species. Due to the continuously increasing demand for sushi, the natural reserves of bluefin tuna have been drastically depleted.
But, with all these mentioned, isn’t it quite weird to pay so much for a single fish which isn’t even extraordinarily big? It costs almost as much as a Pagani Huayra!
