Aussie Japanese cherries

[chikara]

This month the first shipment of Australian grown Japanese cherries will be sent to Japan.

New cherry campaign hires pick of the crop

..... Tasmania is the only place, outside Japan, to grow the cherries which sell for about $1 each. ...... 80 tonnes of the fruit will be exported to Japan next month in the first commercial shipment .......

AUD1.00 = ~81円

Cherries grown here for the local market, which are not Japanese cherries, are currently selling at around AUD14 to AUD15 per kilogram.

[Dustin]

This month the first shipment of Australian grown Japanese cherries will be sent to Japan.

New cherry campaign hires pick of the crop

..... Tasmania is the only place, outside Japan, to grow the cherries which sell for about $1 each. ...... 80 tonnes of the fruit will be exported to Japan next month in the first commercial shipment .......

AUD1.00 = ~81円

Cherries grown here for the local market, which are not Japanese cherries, are currently selling at around AUD14 to AUD15 per kilogram.

I could have sworn it said that the cherries will sell for a dollar EACH.

Either something got overlooked in the article, these are monstrously large cherries, or I'm REALLY MISSING OUT on something great.!!

[becki_kanou]

Dustin, you didn't misread, the Japanese just love expensive fruit as status symbols.

I've seen boxes of cherries in the fruit shops of luxury department stores go for more than that. Once I even saw a mango that was going for ¥21,000 - for ONE mango!

[chikara]

I could have sworn it said that the cherries will sell for a dollar EACH.

Either something got overlooked in the article, these are monstrously large cherries, or I'm REALLY MISSING OUT on something great.!!

If you look at the video linked in that article you can see that they are just ordinary sized cherries. One of the reasons I posted that news item was the price per cherry.

As Becki-san posted above, fruit in Japan can be very expensive. I was amazed on my first visit to Tokyo by the prices on fruit in the food section of a department store in Ginza, it may have been Matsuzakaya. Individual melons costing tens of thousands of yen.

[two_heads_talking]

I remember thinking the same thing about melons when I lived there. I ran across this article the other day. (it's a few years old, but it kind of explains the reasoning behind the 'cost'.. https://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17371

In a nutshell, the Japanese(at least in my experience) don't keep the best, most expensive fruits for themselves, but rather they gift them away to their peers, during gift giving holidays, etc. Perhaps there are more underlying reasons for this, but I think it runs along the lines of keigo.. You speak highly of others and lowly of yourself and thus, when you give, you give things that you would never keep for yourself.

There are also the yubari melons, which are renowned for their sweetness and perfect proportions. http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Worlds-Best-Melons

[Hektor6766]

What they must do to keep the birds away from that crop.

[NileCat]

In 2007, a single bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 was sold for ￡10,000 at Christie's London.　Same thing, isn't it?

I had never thought of it as a particularly Japanese…custom.
I personally don’t assume them as “food”. They are “artifacts”. It’s a kind of form of art that you can consume. Hard to understand? Yeah, I know.


*For those who seriously think it’s insane.
I believe it has something to do with Japanese feudalism which lasted until the 19th century. The best harvest always belongs to the lord.

[chikara]

I remember thinking the same thing about melons when I lived there. I ran across this article the other day. (it's a few years old, but it kind of explains the reasoning behind the 'cost'.. https://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/17371 ....

Thanks for that link.

In 2007, a single bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 was sold for ￡10,000 at Christie's London.　Same thing, isn't it? ...

Not really, that is more a case of supply and demand. How many bottles of 1961 vintage Hermitage La Chapelle are still in existence? Not many I suspect. Cherries on the other hand literally grow on trees.

Also a bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle is an investment and will probably not be consumed by the purchaser but auctioned in 5 or 10 years time for considerably more.

While imported fruit is not as abundant as locally grown fruit and there are air freight cost as well which increase the cost the prices seem to be disproportionate.

..... *For those who seriously think it’s insane.
I believe it has something to do with Japanese feudalism which lasted until the 19th century. The best harvest always belongs to the lord.

That is interesting.

What they must do to keep the birds away from that crop.

They keep the doors shut on the greenhouses.

[NileCat]

Good debate, chikara-san.
I think you are right.

I have only one thing I want to point out.

While imported fruit is not as abundant as locally grown fruit and there are air freight cost as well which increase the cost the prices seem to be disproportionate.

The imported fruits are, unfortunately, not considered the highest grade, at least as for cherries. The most well- known top grade producing region would be Yamagata. Satohnishiki (佐藤錦) is the brand name.
I made a quick search and the most expensive luxury brand cherries from Yamagata I found were 68,000 yen for 35 pieces at street value.(23 US$ each)

That’s why your original post saying "AUD1.00 each" didn’t draw my attention. It doesn't sound that extremely expensive from OUR point of view.

[chikara]

..... The imported fruits are, unfortunately, not considered the highest grade, at least as for cherries. The most well- known top grade producing region would be Yamagata. Satohnishiki (佐藤錦) is the brand name.
I made a quick search and the most expensive luxury brand cherries from Yamagata I found were 68,000 yen for 35 pieces at street value.(23 US$ each)

That’s why your original post saying "AUD1.00 each" didn’t draw my attention. It doesn't sound that extremely expensive from OUR point of view.

That is very interesting.

Having read those pages linked by two_heads_talking-san I now realise that I didn't appreciate that there is an industry in Japan specifically producing this very high grade fruit for this "gift" section of the market.

[NileCat]

I think it is an intriguing subject to determine Japanese culture in terms of gifts. For I suppose the perception of “gift” itself is a little bit different from yours.
You may have heard of お中元 and お歳暮.
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/traditioncu ... oseibo.htm
It is of a very complimentary nature. It usually acts as a lubricant in the Japanese society, however, it is true that it can be assumed a sort of “grading” of the person in some special cases. Since “apparent bribe” is tabooed in Japanese culture, giving “valuable things”, such as gold, doesn’t work. So our culture needs something suitable for special gifts; something very rare and expensive, good enough to express their “courtesy”, but never to be accepted as a monetary bribe, which means, the consumable is ideal. Also, in the context of feudalism history, the only things that people of low position could offer to the higher were agricultural products. They don't tell that you are showing off your wealth. It can express your modesty at the same time.
Thus, the expensive fruits have got a symbolic meaning. In addition to that, they are delicious. By delicious, I mean sweet. They usually have extremely high sugar content compared to normal products. “Sweetness” is a simple quality that anyone can feel even if the person is not familiar with the evaluation of delicate quality like wine. They look beautiful in a special gift box, smell definitely different from normal ones, and very sweet. They fulfill a perfect role in the traditional Japanese society in the conventional value.
Very interesting. Just my two cents, though.

[chikara]

NileCat-san, thank you for that insight.

[two_heads_talking]

Nilecat, I do remember discussing 'gifting' with a family I knew from the Sendai area. They said much of what you mentioned. I had asked them why there were 2 seperate areas in the store for fruits. I noticed there was a cheap side and an expensive side. All the mama-sans were buying in the cheaper side and all the businessmen were buying in the expensive side. It appears those stores were making it 'easier' to find the 'gift' items in case the businessman, wasn't so savvy to know right off.

When you mentioned Feudal Japan, it brought to light something that I appear to have taken for granted and it appears that unless one has lived in Japan to at least see, if not participate in gift giving, it is easy to overlook. It's similar, as I mentioned earlier, to the usage of keigo. Everything I own is lesser and everything you own is greater. If I come to your place, I bring the best I have, but as I offer it to you, I will tell you it isn't much, and that you probably can't use it, but please take it.

[NileCat]

Two_heads_talking, I totally agree with you.
Some would find it weird. Some would find it beautiful.
虚礼廃止 is one of the controversial issues today.

[two_heads_talking]

虚礼廃止 = kyorei haishi (きょれいはいし)to yomaremasuka?

虚礼 empty (useless) formalities
廃止 abolition; repeal

... abolition of useless formalities.. Did I understand that correctly?


Personally, I never considered that a useless formality, but more a tradition that had lost its focus.