Signs of optimism at the traditional auction at the beginning of the year, held at 5.10 in the morning at the Tokyo fish market, where a blue fin tuna was purchased for just over 114 million yen, equivalent to 720 thousand euros, more than triple the valuation of January 2023. The specimen weighing 238 kilograms, caught off the coast of Oma port in the northern prefecture of Aomori, exceeds last year’s price of 36 million yen, and represents the highest figure in recent 4 years, since the end of the health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The president of the Yamayuki food conglomerate, Yukitaka Yamaguchi, and the head of the company that manages the Ginza Onodera Sushi chains, joint winners with the highest bid, explained that after the initial reluctance to participate in the auction due to the news disheartened by the earthquake of January 1st in central-western Japan, they decided to send “a signal of optimism to the market and to entrepreneurs in the sector”. Today’s result, however, is far from the record set at the 2019 auction, the first in the new Toyosu fish market after the move from Tsukiji, east of Tokyo, during which a 278 kilogram tuna was sold for 333.6 million yen, equal to 2.10 million euros.
