Yubari Melons Fetch Record 5.8 M. Yen at 1st Auction of Season

Sapporo, May 22 (Jiji Press)--A box of two Yubari melons fetched a record 5.8 million yen at this season's first auction held in the city of Sapporo in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido on Friday.

The winning bid came from Futami-Seika Co., a fruit and vegetable wholesaler based in the city of Kushiro in Hokkaido.

The melons will go on display at Keio Store Co.'s Sakuragaoka supermarket in the city of Tama, western Tokyo, before tasting events begin next week.

"We have the finest crop," Hirokazu Okubo, an executive of the wholesaler, said. "We want people across Japan to savor Yubari melons."

A total of 912 melons went under the hammer at the day's auction at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]