tuna goes for $100,000 at a tokyo auction

[Amby 490]

TOKYO - Two sushi bar owners paid more than $100,000 US for a Japanese bluefin tuna at a Tokyo fish auction Monday, about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade, market officials said.

The 128-kilogram premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700 US), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase - about $370 per pound ($817 US per kilogram) - went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year's new year event at Tokyo's Tsukiji market, the world's largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 US per pound ($55 US per kilogram). But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.

Premium fish - sometimes sliced up while the customers watch - also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant's quality, like a rare wine.

Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday's festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.

"It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin," Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.

A similar size imported bluefin caught off the eastern United States sold for 1.42 million yen ($15,400 US) in Monday's auction.

Due to growing concerns over the impact of commercial fishing on the bluefin variety's survival, members of international tuna conservation organizations, including Japan, have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 per cent to 22,000 tons.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090105/...pan_pricey_tuna

[Nagishkaw 510]

Supply and demand.

[almaty 19]

hmmm...tuna must be hard to come by there

Supply and demand.

i can tune a piano but not tuna fish

[Peikko 1,575]

Tuna is graded.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

hmmm...tuna must be hard to come by there

...

Eh, Japanese were prime contributors to bluefin's scarcity (as well as other food such as shark, whalemeat, ...) through their demands (analogous to US demand for oil).

[almaty 19]

wow, thanks brother sriniv..

[*Robert* 2]

Tuna is graded.

Really? Like on what... how well they did in "school"?!

[almaty 19]

hola brother robert!!!!

[*Robert* 2]

hmmm...tuna must be hard to come by there

i can tune a piano but not tuna fish

REO Speedwagon!! That's a good one brother Dean

[almaty 19]

i saw them years ago...in carbondale..i was drunk but they were drunker

[*Robert* 2]

i saw them years ago...in carbondale..i was drunk but they were drunker

Hola brother Dean!!! I sure have missed seing you around my good friend!

I too saw them, but at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Wasn't drunk, but I sure was stoned!!!

[Amby 490]

i saw them years ago...in carbondale..i was drunk but they were drunker

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Japanese tuna is better. Just like Honda and Toyota.

[Amby 490]

Japanese tuna is better. Just like Honda and Toyota.

remember resolution remember resolution resist resist resist

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Japanese tuna is better. Just like Honda and Toyota.

remember resolution remember resolution resist resist resist