A bluefin tuna was sold this Friday for 114 million yen (about 719,000 euros) in the traditional first auction of the year at the Toyosu fish market in Tokyo, the fourth highest price in its history.
The price paid for the 238-kilogram fish was three times higher than that paid last year for a 212-kilogram specimen, which sold for 36.04 million yen (about 257,000 euros).
Today’s price is the fourth highest since records were kept in 1999 and the first time in four years that the 100 million yen (630,000 euros) barrier has been exceeded.
Yamayuki, a famous wholesale intermediary based in Tokyo, and the Ginza Onodera chain, which has establishments in the Japanese capital and branches in China and the United States, made the largest joint bid to obtain the tuna, caught in waters near the port of Oma. in the Aomori prefecture (northern Japan), where the best specimens in the world are considered to swim for making sushi.
This is the fourth consecutive year in which the two companies opt for a joint bid to obtain the copy.
“I was worried about which tuna we should bid on, but freshness and good color were the deciding factors. Japanese tuna and sushi are attracting a lot of attention from people around the world and this motivates fishermen thanks to the high prices they receive,” said Yukitaka Yamaguchi, president of the wholesaler Yamayuki, in statements reproduced by the state broadcaster NHK.
During today’s auction, a minute of silence was also observed for the victims of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake off the western coast of central Japan this Monday, which has already left 92 dead and 242 missing.
The tuna auction record is still held by a bluefin tuna that reached 333.6 million yen (about 2.37 million euros) in the first auction of 2019, the first to be held in Toyosu after the fish market was moved. there from its previous location in the nearby neighborhood of Tsukiji.
In the last 15 years, the first auction of the year has reached astronomical figures for the best pieces because many have seen it as an opportunity to generate a large amount of media attention that compensates for the enormous outlay to obtain a product considered “hatsumomo” (the first of the season), which greatly attracts the Japanese consumer.
