A pair of Yubari melons, a premium orange-fleshed cantaloupe variety from Hokkaido, sold for 2.5 million yen in this harvest season’s first auction held Tuesday at the Sapporo City Central Wholesale Markets.
The price is a record high, surpassing the 2 million yen a pair fetched last year, according to Yubari’s agricultural cooperative. The winning bidder of what was considered the best pair Tuesday was Ibi, a Sapporo-based dealer of seafood products and local souvenir goods.