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Bunch of premium table grapes fetches ¥1.1 mil at auction

32 Comments

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$10,000 for one bunch of grapes? We all know this is just an advertising gimmick but damn donate that money towards the flood victims instead

23 ( +25 / -2 )

If that money isn't going to charity that's dispicable.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

Hmmm... if people want to buy that amount, well, do it.

I think it is ridiculous...

11 ( +12 / -1 )

I'll be holding an auction for my first picking of spinach in my back yard.

Let me hear the bidding start at.¥100,000......

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Someone spends 1.1 million on a small bunch of grapes while people are in dire needs of aid in the southwest part of Japan. Glad to see people have their priorities straight.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

gimmick

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Again!! The only way that packet should cost that is if there’s ¥1,099,500 in cash inside.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

They are Premium grapes, not the regular supermarket one. And grown in Japan, super expensive Nation. Grapes will not be cheap, like in Western nations. Farmers deserve evey yen they get. Average age is 71 for a farmer.

-23 ( +1 / -24 )

Someone clearly has more dollars than sense. Although, if money did change hands - I wonder if it returned to its original hands after the story made it to the news...

5 ( +5 / -0 )

They are Premium grapes, not the regular supermarket one. And grown in Japan, super expensive Nation. Grapes will not be cheap, like in Western nations. Farmers deserve evey yen they get. Average age is 71 for a farmer.

Farmers deserve every yen of subsidies they get out of our tax dollars, plus the money we spend on their overpriced wares, all so we can avoid importing cheaper food from abroad? I see. And no one should point out that the entire J-ag industry will collapse within a generation b/c it's propped up by elderly people who still aren't making enough to live comfortably. Every farmer and orchard keeper I know in Japan has a second job (at least).

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Japan, super expensive Nation

Ganbare - Not something to be proud of.

Far better to have an economic system in which most people can afford to enjoy a variety of fruit every day.

15 ( +15 / -0 )

@jcapan / @cucashopboy ... excellent comments!

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Put the word premium on any product in Japan and some Japanese believe in this crap! Gullible or plain stupidity?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Absolute nonsense.

The mania for having the largest or sweetest fruit means they don't taste of the fruit, just sugar water. Many fruit are meant to have a slight sour taste to them. The foreign grapes and cherries I buy here are much tastier than the domestic kind. I just wish I could get decent apples, the domestic ones are inedible.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@ganbarejapan Average age is 71 for a farmer.

Thank you for pointing out another flaw in Japan's farming sector. The aging of farmers is one of dozens of issues the government need to address to ensure there aren't more problems providing a range of affordable foods for the nation.

Maybe their aging is yet another reason for the government to ease up on some food imports.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

I understand people's frustration while comparing this news bit with the flood situation. But that's the way it goes, folks. Sad but true. 1.1 million: ridi-friggin-culous

They are Premium grapes, not the regular supermarket one. And grown in Japan, super expensive Nation. Grapes will not be cheap, like in Western nations. Farmers deserve evey yen they get. Average age is 71 for a farmer.

I read that while I gave myself a "rant tempo" in my head. Haha-Bla-bla

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Luddite wrote: The mania for having the largest or sweetest fruit means they don't taste of the fruit, just sugar water. Many fruit are meant to have a slight sour taste to them.

Completely agree! I noticed this too with tomatoes. Often like sugar water and missing the sour element.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The mania for having the largest or sweetest fruit means they don't taste of the fruit, just sugar water. Many fruit are meant to have a slight sour taste to them. The foreign grapes and cherries I buy here are much tastier than the domestic kind. I just wish I could get decent apples, the domestic ones are inedible.

I don't agree with you on the grapes - I think the purple-skinned large Japanese ones are much better than anything I've tasted anywhere, but give me a tart British strawberry over one of those oversweet synthetic -tasting Japanese strawberries any day.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

To each fool their own, but that's their choice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

People are now programmed to believe all fruit should be sweet, so the bland syrupy stuff now is the benchmark for consumers and farmers alike. I was in a Megumi no Sato and saw they were selling a few small punnets of blackberries at the weekend, I was overjoyed. Husband and I loved them, his mum ate one and pulled a face, 'They are sour, they are bad'. Went back to the shop later in the day, all the punnets had yellow stickers on them, so I bought the lot.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Everybody blames the farmers. It is 35degrees here. While walking an hour or two ago, I meet a lot of farmers. They work very hard. The heavy rain damaged many crops and the crows and deers have come to eat whatever is left. Fences are broken and plastic coverings destroyed.

even though they work so hard and can lose everything due to weather, yesterday I was given potatoes and today cucumbers.

off to the home center later to buy a net for my bulging grapes. The birds are waiting...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Those grapes are probably sour anyways.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Careful with your teeth when eating those grapes. There must be one tiny but expensive lottery gold in one of those so called premium grapes.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It takes 1.1 minute to eat.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Everybody blames the farmers

Actually, no one is blaming the farmers. What we're blaming is a system that sustains their marginal lifestyles and furusato mythology while the overwhelming majority of urban residents in Japan dole out astronomical shares of our income for basic foodstuffs. A long-criticized system of pork-barrel spending in return for there rural votes (see: disproportionate, unconstitutional) for our beloved ruling party.

And no matter how much we may love or revere these hardworking, mostly older laborers, their world is coming to an end, literally within the next 25 years. So, in lieu of sentimentality, perhaps we can act on behalf of the majority's interest. If there's any farming to be done in Japan by 2050, it'll be done by robots.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Average age is 71 for a farmer.

Pray tell just what in the heck does a 71 year old farmer have to do with the price of a bunch of grapes?

It's a gimmick, and people here have been brainwashed since the bubble era into thinking that if something costs a lot, it's somehow "better" in value or taste.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I grew up in California where fruits and vegetables are food, affordable food that everyone eats. I don't understand how or why Japan has turned these foods into gifts and exotic treats but it clearly does not benefit consumers because Japanese people either do not have access/knowledge of types of fruits, vegetables or can not afford the limited fruits and vegetables that are available.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

No fruit in school lunches in Kansai. What is the food pyramid?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

. And grown in Japan, super expensive Nation. Grapes will not be cheap, like in Western nations. 

My first thought is this post was in jest....surely, it was?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Everyone knows there is a lot of B. S. In the World, but, this junk about the money paid for these grapes is utter Rubbish!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

They are Premium grapes, not the regular supermarket one. And grown in Japan, super expensive Nation. Grapes will not be cheap, like in Western nations. Farmers deserve evey yen they get. Average age is 71 for a farmer.

Your point? Not even premium grapes grown in an expensive nation are worth 1.1 million yen. Like, what else could you buy with that 1.1 million yen, and wouldn't those other things be worth more than one bunch of even super-delicious grapes?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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