Bunch of grapes sells for record-setting C$14,317 in Japan

You can pick up roughly a pound of grapes at your local grocery store in Ontario for about $8.

But that number is dwarfed by the price fetched by a cluster of Ruby Roman grapes at an auction in Japan.

According to The Japan Times, the bunch of about 30 grapes came with the record price tag of 1.1 million yen, or C$14,317.

The grapes were the most expensive of a lot of 46 batches of Ruby Romans that were auctioned off at a wholesale market in Kanazawa, which is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, about 50 kilometres southwest of Kyoto.

The prized bunch was purchased by a supermarket from the city of Amagasaki that had previously paid a record 3 million yen, or C$39,046, for a pair of Yubari melons in May.

“I am very much honoured,” Takamaru Konishi, who placed the bid on behalf of Kurashi Kaientai supermarket, told The Japan Times.

The supermarket plans to put the grapes on display at the store and they will be handed out to customers for free.

Based on their auction value, a lucky customer who takes home a grape is basically taking home C$477 in fruit.

Kaientai told the newspaper that he hopes the act will delight farmers in Ishikawa.

Ruby Roman grapes in Japan

Ruby Romans are table grapes, meaning they are meant to be eaten not turned into wine or other products, which are red in colour and about the size of a ping-pong ball.

The highly-valued fruits first appeared in 2008, after being in the works for 14 years, as a new premium form of grapes in Japan.

Ruby Romans are said to be the most expensive in the world, with retail prices starting at 25,000 yen a bunch, or C$325, depending on the quality.

Thursday’s price of $14,317 surpassed the record 1 million yen bid for the most expensive bunch last year.

The prestigious fruits are grown and sold only in the Ishikawa Prefecture, where each grape is thoroughly inspected to guarantee its quality. The sale of Ruby Romans is regulated by strict rules that necessitate that each grape must weigh more than 20 grams and has a sugar content in excess of 18 per cent.

There is an even higher stratosphere in terms of quality called the “premium class,” which requires a grape to be over 30g and the entire bunch must weigh at least 700g to make the cut.  Only six grape bunches qualified as premium in 2010, and none the following year.