Japanese watermelon sells for £3,100

A Japanese man took his support for the country's fruit growers to extraordinary lengths yesterday when he paid a record 650,000 yen (£3,100) for a single watermelon on the opening day of the annual season.

The black Densuke watermelon, grown only on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, fetched the highest-ever price at a Japanese auction and may be the priciest watermelon in the world, according to local officials.



The premium watermelon, which weighed 7.7kg (17lbs), was bought by an unnamed seafood trader who made his sky-high bid to show his support for Japanese agriculture.

Auction officials attempted to explain why anyone should part with just a few hundred dollars for a watermelon, let alone £3,000. The key, apparently, is in its unusual black skin and its crisp flesh. "It's a watermelon, but it's not the same", Kazuyoshi Ohira, a local agricultural cooperative spokesman. "It has a different level of sweetness."