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A Japanese Startup Is Shipping $89 Strawberries, $120 Melons
Previously unattainable fruit can now be delivered straight to your door.
A Shizuoka crown melon with Awayuki and Pearl White strawberries. Photographer: Joanna McClure for Bloomberg Businessweek
By Kat Odell
March 21, 2024 at 1:25 AM EDT
What does a $120 melon taste like? To find out, you used to have to fly to Japan. Now, Americans can stay home and experience what many believe is one of the best pieces of fruit in the world.
For the first time, Japanese-grown produce, such as strawberries and melons, is being shipped direct to US consumers through Iki ai Fruits, a new online retailer for a collective of small farmers across Japan.
The effort underscores the country's attempt to expand the consumer base outside Japan and eventually entice more people in the country to grow produce. Its agriculture industry is declining, as younger generations turn away from farming and businesses close. In 2020 the industry was valued at 8.9 trillion yen ($60 billion); by 2050 it's expected to be less than half that, according to a reQort by the Mitsubishi Research Institute.
"Domestic consumption of luxury Japanese fruit is shrinking, so the Japanese government is stimulating the exports," says Takahiro Hiraishi, a food consultant who works with local authorities on native products.
Ikigai is exporting three kinds of fruit: strawberries, melons and, when they're in season, satsuma mandarins. The company plans to add other fruits to the seasonally available options.
Prices range from $89 for about 1 pound of vibrant pink Kotoka strawberries to as much as $780 for three miniboxes that hold approximately nine Kotokas, light pink Awayukis and pale-colored Pearl Whites each.
The hefty price tag reflects the obsessive ways the fruit is grown and harvested. It's an extension of Japan's shokunin culture, in which artisans spend their lives mastering a craft such as making furniture or cooking ramen. (In the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which follows master Jiro Ono, aspiring chefs famously spend the first three years of a decade-long apprenticeship just learning how to cook rice.)
Japanese farmers dedicated to growing crown melons-the electric-green-fleshed fruit that's often the finale of a high-level omakase meal-typically train for about two years before they can become independent and are known to massage their fruit. They also prune their plants so each one produces a single melon, rather than the usual eight or more.
The technique is known as ichiboku ikka, which translates to "one tree, one fruit." The scant output concentrates the nutrients into an explosively sweet, intensely flavored confection that can get very expensive: In 2019 a pair of Yubari King melons were auctioned off for the equivalent of $45,000.
From top: Kotoka, Awayuki and Pearl White strawberries. Photographer: Joanna McClure for Bloomberg Businessweek
The country even has a national grading system for fruits, based on size, shape, sugar content and related criteria. And prefectures have their own unique scoring structures.
In Shizuoka, on Japan's southern coast, the highest score a muskmelon-the overarching species of typically sweet-fleshed melons such as cantaloupe and honeydew-can receive is designated as Fuji: Think of it as a Michelin three-star rating for fruit. Only about 1 in 1,000 melons earns this designation, which usually leads to a price of more than 30,000 yen.
Strawberries can be even trickier. They're notoriously sensitive to sunlight, heat, dry air and pests, which is why farmers are constantly adjusting their growing environment in controlled greenhouses. The timing of the harvest is the key to sweetness: The longer strawberries remain on their stems, the sweeter they become, as photosynthesis produces more glucose.
But picking a fully ripe strawberry makes it more vulnerable to damage during transportation. Every piece is inspected thoroughly, weighed and carefully wrapped in custom packaging. Even the smallest pinprick can result in mold.
Asayama Haruyuki, director of Ikigai, says it's been a "big challenge" logistically to ship delicate, valuable fruits to the US while maintaining freshness. The produce is packed in individual boxes with ice packs on refrigerated planes meant specifically to transport fruit. It typically takes one to two weeks to get from the farm into the hands of US consumers.
Top-quality, high-priced Japanese-style fruit isn't totally foreign to New Yorkers. Inspired by the premium strawberries he experienced growing up in Japan, Hiroki Kogaco co founded the vertical strawberry farm Oishii in Kearny, New Jersey, in 2017. He embraces Japanese fruit farmers' practices to replicate a "perfect day" for a strawberry plant, using LED lights for the exact amount of light, air conditioners for the right temperature and humidity, and a combination of farmers, bees and robots to monitor it all. The company sells a 4.2-ounce pack of its sweet, low-acid, pink Omakase strawberries for $10 to $15- about $1 each.
Japan isn't the only country seeing growth in America's luxury fruit market. South Korea's greenhouse-grown On Berries hit the US East Coast in January with a plump and crisp variety of strawberry called Gold Berry. Pastry chef Eunji Lee of New York's French-Korean dessert shop 1ysee, who was the first to put it on the menu, describes it as having a "candylike sweetness," in addition to its balanced acidity. At Manhattan's haute Korean restaurant bom, pastry chef Celia Lee is using On Berries three ways in one dessert: fresh, blended into cream and frozen into sorbet.
On Berries co-founder Richard Kang sells packs that hold anywhere from 8 to 15 strawberries for $25 in the Washington, DC, area. To expand retail distribution, he's raising the brand's awareness by collaborating with other chefs.
These costs might seem high when local grocery stores sell boxes ofDriscoll's strawberries for $6. But not if you really value the joy of eating outrageously flavorful, exquisitely gorgeous fruit-even when it's out of season.
Where Else To Get a Rare-Fruit Fix
Oishii
The New Jersey fruit farmer introduced premium Japanese-style strawberries to the Big Apple in 2017. Its Omakase Berr _ is grown in the world's largest indoor vertical strawberry farm and has become a beloved ingredient among Michelin-starred chefs. The brand also sells tart, crisp-textured Koyo berries and Rubi cherry tomatoes, prized for their sweetness. Home cooks (and strawberry enthusiasts) can score trays of the berries through major grocery retailers such as FreshDirect.
Mogmog
Two-year-old Mogmog-a postage-stamp-size artisanal Japanese food market in New York's Long Island City-is the only shop of its kind in the area, and one of the few vendors in the entire country, that sells premium Japanese fruit at retail. It doesn't offer mail order or delivery, but those who visit in person can secure fruit-punch-flavored Pearl White strawberries, as well as less commonly imported Japanese fruit including rainbow kiwis and pears when in season.
On Berries
Digital grocery store Streets Market gives residents around the DC area priority on ordering America's first luxury Korean strawberries. Sustainably farmed in South Korean greenhouses, the berries are imported by co-founder Richard Kang in limited amounts twice a week; they arrive carefully packed with padding that snugly protects each individual berry. Unlike Ikigai's produce, which should be eaten within two to three days, these stay fresh for as long as a week if stored in the refrigerator.
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