Friday 26 June 2020

Perfectly Sized And Shaped Fruits Are Big Business in Japan,

and it’s not uncommon for the rarest and most coveted varieties to sell for thousands of dollars a piece,


and so do unusually shaped fruit, if you have been reading our blog for some time you may remember back in July 2016 we posted a piece about a bunch of grapes selling for over 1.1 million yen! above photograph Laughlin Elkind/Flickr, it appears to be a Japanese thing, giving rare and expensive fruits which are traditionally offered as gifts to clients, business partners or relatives, and people will gladly spend a small fortune on a single fruit just to show their respect for someone. But while most of these expensive fruits can be savored by the recipient, there is one that has a purely decorative purpose – square watermelons,

photograph Francisco Antunes/Flickr, yes that is correct, square watermelons aren’t even edible, let alone tasty, developed about 50 years ago by farmers in Takamatsu, Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, as a way to raise their community’s profile among the country’s farmers, square watermelons have become both an iconic symbol of Japan and a very valuable commodity. It’s not uncommon for these unusually shaped watermelons to be sold for around $100 apiece,

“This fruit is meant to be a feast for your eyes, but they don’t taste very good,” luxury fruit shop manager Mototaka Nishimura said. “They should be displayed as ornaments, maybe mixed with flowers.” square watermelons are grown in special acrylic boxes, and in order for them to attain and maintain the desired shape for the longest possible time, they are not allowed to mature, so they are not what you would call tasty, if you plan on buying one such fruit, you should know that they can last up to a year, so one at $100 you can not eat that lasts a year, or 12 at $8 each, so one a month that you can eat? up to you!


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