The story behind the 9.63 million yen tuna

The economy is tanking right now, but Tsukiji’s first tuna auction of 2009 has shown us that the super rich can still afford to pay big bucks for premium tuna:

The 282-pound (128-kilogram) premium tuna caught off the northern coast of Oma fetched 9.63 million yen ($104,700), the highest since 2001, when another Japanese bluefin tuna brought an all-time record of 20 million yen, market official Takashi Yoshida said.

Yoshida said the extravagant purchase _ about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) _ went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

Here’s a FTV news segment about the what the buyers did with the ultra expensive fish:

The clip starts by introducing Ricky Cheng, who owns a very successful restaurant chain called Itamae Sushi. His original restaurant was in Hong Kong back in 2004 and he has since opened two Itamae Sushi stores in the Ginza and Akasaka districts of Tokyo. Cheng won last year’s auction by himself, but this year he shared the purchase of the fish with the owner of Ginza Kyubei.

Most of the part Cheng bought was flown off to be served in Hong Kong, but some parts of the special tuna did get served to customers of the Tokyo branches of Itaemae Sushi. One 5-kilogram section of the fish is shown being cut up and prepared at the Akasaka branch, apparently to be sold as part of a 2980 yen sushi plate. Huge signs plastered all over the outside of the restaurant announce its winning of the special tuna auction, attracting a great many customers. Cheng readily admits he is losing quite a bit of money by letting people eat the premium fish at such a low price, but there is some value in showing the world that his restaurants serve high quality dishes.

Meanwhile, Ginza Kyubei sold their portion of the fish for a much higher price (2000-2500 yen for one piece). Ginza Kyubei has a long reputation as one of Japan’s finest sushi restaurants, and its owner had no intention of having a foreign-owned sushi restaurant take all the premium tuna glory.

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