The season's first pair of Japan's luxurious Yubari melons were sold yesterday at ¥800,000 (US$7,258), the highest bidding price ever, at a Sapporo auction in the northern island of Hokkaido.
The revered orange-fleshed Yubari melons, similar in size to a cantaloupe, were sold to Shikisya Co, an online produce seller in Hokkaido.
Last year, the premier melons were sold for ¥600,000 a pair to Ogasawara Shoten, a souvenir shop in Chitose.
After being on a shrine-like display, were later auctioned online for ¥120,000 a piece, according to Naohiro Kawahara, the seller of the melons.
An average 1.3kg Yubari melon, renowned for their high quality and sweet taste, normally sells for ¥2,000 to ¥8,000.
"For us, it is one of the festive celebrations to mark the first shipment of Yubari melons," Hisashi Kurosawa of National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations at Yubari City said yesterday.
A hybrid created in 1960, seedlings of the Yubari King are planted under vinyl greenhouses in February and 105 days later the first melons are carefully handpicked. The harvest continues until August.
Only 154 of about 230 farmers in the former coal-mine town of Yubari have the right to plant the melon seeds.
"The farmers face heavy hardships in growing these melons," Kurosawa said. "But Yubari melons are our proud product as a sign of the summer approaching."
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS