Premium cherries fetch over 1 mil. yen in year's 1st auctions in Japan

Premium "Sato Nishiki" cherries from the northeastern Japan prefecture of Yamagata fetched record prices at the year's first auctions on Monday, including 1.8 million yen ($11,500) for a box at a Tokyo market, or more than 26,000 yen per cherry.An auction in the city of Tendo in Yamagata, Japan's main cherry-producing prefecture, also sold a 68-cherry box for a record 1.55 million yen.Cherries typically peak in early summer, but growers have advanced the harvest using "ultra-forced" cultivation, which chills trees to simulate winter before keeping them in greenhouses.Kenichi Mannen, deputy …READ FULL ARTICLE