Post date: Jan 05, 2011 2:6:19 PM
Bluefin tuna sold for record $400,000 on first auction of the year at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market
JAPAN-BLUEFIN TUNA -A bluefin tuna has exchanged hands for a record sum of nearly $400, 000 dollars in Japan.
Prized by sushi lovers as a high-end treat, the fish was sold in the year's first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market on Wednesday.
The auction started with the ringing of bells well before dawn, with an auctioneer launching into a rapid chant as rubber-booted buyers signalled subtly with their hands.
The 342 kg (754 lb) tuna sold quickly for about $397,000, the highest price for a single fish since record-keeping began in 1999.This works out to a whopping $1,160 per kilo.
The bluefin is among the most prized of tuna in Japan, with the country consuming over half of the world's bluefin.
But fishing quotas have been tightened amid dwindling supplies, and auction manager Yoshinari Sekimoto says global appetite for the endangered fish has risen.
AUCTION MANAGER AND CEO OF "TOHTO SUISAN" YOSHINARI SEKIMOTO SAYING:
"The custom of eating raw fish is spreading throughout the world, so that it's no longer an era where Japan is consuming all of the limited supply of tuna."
The giant fish was jointly bought by a sushi restaurant in Tokyo's posh Ginza district and a Hong Kong sushi restaurateur Ricky Cheng.
HONG KONG SUSHI ENTREPRENEUR RICKY CHENG SAYING:
"Good tuna is really selling to people in Hong Kong and China, and this is a really good fish."
Cheng says he will price the premium tuna affordably
HONG KONG SUSHI ENTREPRENEUR RICKY CHENG SAYING:
"I'll sell it to my customers even though I'm probably not going to make any profit."
Tsukiji trades in millions of dollars worth of fish and vegetables on any given day.
Arnold Gay, Reuters