Pandemic blues: Tuna fetches only US$145,000 in Tokyo auction

Pandemic blues: Tuna fetches only US$145,000 in Tokyo auction

The top New Year bid falls for the third consecutive year as restaurants flounder.

This year’s figure is 19% below last year’s top price at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market. (AP pic)
TOKYO:
The winning bluefin tuna at Japan’s closely watched New Year fish auction fetched ¥16.9 million (US$145,000) yesterday, down for the third year in a row as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the country’s restaurant industry.

The figure was 19% below the top price at the New Year auction in Tokyo’s Toyosu Market in 2021.

The winning bid was placed by wholesaler Yamayuki, which also led last year’s auction.

“It’s so plump – I knew that would be the one as soon as I walked into the market. The quality was high, too,” the company’s representative said.

Yamayuki planned to sell the fish that morning to customers including Kaiten Sushi Ginza Onodera, a revolving-sushi restaurant run by the same group as the upscale Sushi Ginza Onodera chain.

The 211kg tuna was caught off the coast of the northern prefecture of Aomori, in an area famed for its high-quality bluefin.

Self-described “tuna king” Kiyoshi Kimura, owner of the Sushizanmai chain and a frequent top bidder at New Year auctions, did not regain his crown after losing out to Yamayuki last year as well.

Kimura in 2019 placed the highest-ever bid for a bluefin tuna at a New Year auction, at ¥333.6 million (US$2.88 million at current rates).

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