These Cherries Cost More Than $213 Each

How much would you be willing to pay for a box of cherries? Let’s be real: probably not that much. A couple of bucks, maybe a little extra if they were really, really good, or if you were buying a fancy jar of maraschino cherries for a special cocktail. Even then, most of us would pause before we got our credit cards out to spend much more. 

Well, it turns out that there are people in the world who don’t think like us, folks—and who are happy to splash some serious cash on these little stone fruits. $14,800, in fact. Yep. The Straits Times recently reported that a box of cherries went for that eye-watering sum, with each cherry averaging out as costing just over $213, at an auction in Japan. Excuse us while we go outside and take some deep breaths.

Sato Nishiki Cherries Are One of the Priciest Fruits in the World

The astronomically expensive cherries, which were sold to Japanese company JA Tendo Foods, are a premium variety known for their impeccable flavor and for the huge amount of work that goes into growing them. Sato Nishiki cherries are cultivated in Yamagata Prefecture, and are identifiable by their deep, ruby red color and their perfectly sweet-sour taste. In the cherry world, they’re considered a delicacy, which contributes to their high price. 

Incredibly, though, Sato Nishiki cherries are far from the most expensive fruits. Yubari King melons, also grown in Japan, can sell for well over $10,000 a pop, and in 2019, a pair of them sold at auction for over $40,000. The same year, a single durian fruit sold at a different auction in Thailand for almost $48,000. Turns out there are some people out there who really love fruit. 

If You Want, You Might Be Able to Pick Up Some of These Cherries Yourself

As for what JA Tendo Foods is planning to do with these cherries, any people out there who fancy spending their life savings on a couple of bites of food are in luck. Following the successful bid, the food company announced that it was planning on selling the cherries online. Other online Japanese specialist fruit retailers also periodically stock and ship them, although, as you might expect, they’re far from easy to get your hands on. Personally, we’d rather stick to regular grocery stores that we know have good produce, instead of having to take out a loan.

The massive price for this box of cherries is far from an isolated occurrence, either. At another auction in Yamagata, held around the same time, another box of cherries sold for $12,685. There were just 68 cherries in the box, meaning that each fruit averaged out at around $186.54. Yup.