A tuna fish sold for more than $270,000 at the traditional Tokyo auction on the occasion of the New Year, nearly double the price of the most expensive fish last year, breaking the prevailing downward trend in demand since the start of the pandemic.
Michelin-starred sushi restaurant Onodera and Japanese wholesaler Yamayuki paid 36.04 million yen ($273,000) for a 212-kilogram bluefin tuna caught off the coast of Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, close to the auction in Japan. Toyosu fish market in Tokyo, reports a local Arabic daily.
This number is well below the record price recorded in 2019, but it reflects a recovery in the token auction after three years of low prices.
Onodera’s chief chef, Akifumi Sakagami, told reporters after the auction that the fish sold “has all the qualities of a good tuna.” He added, “We have gone through years of depression (during the pandemic).”
The price of the most expensive tuna in an auction last year was only 16.88 million yen, which observers attributed to weak demand as a wave of Covid swept Japan in early 2022
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