Single tuna sells for record $1.76 million in sign of prices to come

[The Straight Story]

Japanese sushi chain Kiyomura paid a record 155.4 million yen (US$1.76 million) for a single bluefin tuna at an auction in Tokyo on Friday, outbidding a Hong Kong-based competitor in a sign of the fish’s ever-more-expensive future.

The buyer, Kiyoshi Kimura, acknowledged that the price was “a bit high.” It was nearly three times the previous record at Tsukiji, the world’s largest fish market, where most of Japan’s sushi is sourced. Friday’s tuna auction was the first of the year, attracting heavy publicity, so the sale prices are inflated.

Nevertheless, the auction reflects a basic supply-and-demand problem: bluefin tuna populations are dwindling as Japan’s appetite for otoro sushi, taken from the tuna’s belly, continues to grow. Japanese consume 80% of the world’s bluefin tuna, though demand from high-end restaurants in the United States and Europe is also increasing. Environmentalists have long argued for stricter regulation of bluefin tuna fishing.

A scene from last year’s documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about an obsessive Tokyo chef, explains the tuna auctions at Tsukiji Market:

http://qz.com/40904/single-tuna-sells-for-record-1-76-million-in-sign-of-prices-to-come/

[NYC_SKP]

1. How is there possibly room for a profit on that single fish?

Must be incredibly small servings at ridiculously high prices.

[The Straight Story]

2. I think he is trading profit on it for more customers

He is selling it at the regular price he charges.

[demwing]

3. From the article:

Yesterday’s record tuna weighs 222 kilograms (489 pounds), and Kimura said the fish would yield 10,000 pieces of sushi. That’s $3,600 per pound or $176 per sushi piece, though Kimura said the fish would retail at his restaurant chain’s regular prices, which are much lower.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Sold at a loss, then.

But important to have on the day's menu.

Pass me a Kirin!

[siligut]

4. I am thinking it is a conspicuous consumption purchase

Looking for fame. An ultra-rich thing, which I know very little about. Don't they believe in fish farming?

[jmowreader]

8. They do...

Google "bluefin tuna ranching" and you'll see it's becoming pretty common to do.

[siligut]

14. I am not opposed to responsible fish ranching

Thank you jmowreader

[jmowreader]

7. Turns out there was a bidding war over it

A Japanese restaurant chain and a Hong Kong chain started going at it and...well, you know how it is.

I looked it up and did some numbers.

The fish weighed 489 pounds. The Japanese sushi wholesale buyers are big on buying WHOLE fish, with the guts still in them, so this fish was almost certainly presented that way at auction. Tunas are mostly meat, so about 80 percent of the fish is salable as sushi, or 391 pounds. That works out to $4500/pound or around $10 per gram. If they sell that as "the world's most expensive fish" they'll get $15 per gram, easy.

[Recursion]

9. Sometimes business takes second place to pissing contests

Also, my sushi chef friend tells me these really big tuna don't have the proper toro (fat belly) to sell. This really is just a pissing contest.

[pscot]

6. What price extinction

[Gregorian]

10. 7 billion mouths.

There may very well be a day when people are standing around with nothing to eat. It's so hard to watch, knowing full well that we're racing toward terrible times. People just don't seem to care or see.

It feels like watching someone who has been diagnosed with heart disease, and they continue smoking, drinking, not exercising. What kind of insanity is this.

[Scootaloo]

12. It's not the seven billion mouths

It's the tiny, tiny fraction of that number that think eating endangered species makes them look important.

Most of those seven billion people would be perfectly happy for just a steady diet of nutritious food, and don't demand ultra-rre critters for their conspicuous consumption needs.

[Godhumor]

11. This happened a few months ago actually

The buyer ended up sending bits of the tuna to all his restaurants where it was incorporated into dishes for normal consumers.

[NightWatcher]

13. Holy shit I want some good sushi now

If I paid that coin for a tuna, you'd find me on the floor with a filet knife eating it raw by the handful.