Bunch of grapes sells for £8,350

A bunch of grapes has fetched a record price at an auction in Japan, where the fruit is considered a status symbol. The bunch of about 30 grapes of the Ruby Roman variety sold for 1.1m yen (£8,350, $10,860) – about £270 ($350) a grape.



Each grape is roughly the size of a ping pong ball. The grapes are grown in Ishikawa prefecture, and to qualify for the Ruby Roman designation, each grape must weigh at least 20g and have a sugar content of at least 18%.

According to the Ruby Roman club website run by the Ishikawa prefecture, the cultivation process began in 1992 when seeds of the Fujiminori variety were sown. Over the years, they were then cultivated into the Roman Ruby variety, which was named after submissions from the public in 2004.



The first grapes went on sale in 2008, and prices have been rising ever since. The buyer of the bunch promised to dole out samples to a few fortunate patrons. “These are truly Ruby Roman gems,” bidder Takamaru Konishi from western Japan said. “We will display them at our store before giving our customers a sample taste,” he said.