Society

Bluefin tuna fetches Y36.5 million in first Tsukiji sale of 2018, and last year-opener at site

Jan 05 (Japan Times) - An 405 kg (892 pound) bluefin tuna has sold for Â¥36.5 million ($320,000) in what may really be Tsukiji market's final year-opening auction at its current site in downtown Tokyo, media reports said Friday.

The winning bid for the prized but threatened species at the pre-dawn auction was well below the record Â¥155.4 million bid at 2013's annual new year auction. It amounts to about Â¥90,000 ($798) per kilogram and was paid by a local wholesaler, the reports said.

This year's top per kilogram price, for a smaller tuna, was $1,419 per kilogram, compared with about $7,930 per kilogram for the 2013 record-setting auction price, media reported. That price was paid by Kiyomura Corp., whose owner, Kiyoshi Kimura, runs the Sushi Zanmai chain, the reports said. Kimura has often won the annual auction in the past.

The reports said the top-priced tuna was one of the biggest ever sold at the auction.

Last year's new year auction was supposed to be the last at Tsukiji's current location, as was the one the year before. The market's shift to a new facility on a former gas plant site on Tokyo Bay has been repeatedly delayed due to concerns over soil contamination.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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