Ikigai Fruits, a marketplace that sources from a small collective of Japan-based farmers, claims to have the best fruit on the market — and it’s charging an eye-watering price for it.
Now, US consumers can get these pricey delicacies delivered straight to their door.
The marketplace offers a limited selection of strawberries, melons, and oranges, available seasonally.
Its red Kotoka strawberries are the cheapest offering at $89 per pound, while a set of 27 red, pink, and white strawberries will set you back $780. A $40 shipping charge is then placed on top of that.
The Crown Melon, priced at $120, is grown only in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan. It’s grown by specialist farmers who massage the melon and prune the plant to produce just one melon at a time, according to Bloomberg.
The labor-intensive specialty techniques take farmers years to learn which is why its price point is so high. Farmers of Shizuoka melons painstakingly water them by hand and wear protective gloves to polish the melon to ensure it’s presented perfectly.
Maintaining freshness has been a hurdle to importing these fruits, which take around two weeks to arrive in the US, so Ikigai wraps each product individually and surrounds them in specialty ice packs, per Bloomberg.
Unlike other high-priced items, these delicacies can’t be stored for a special occasion — they need to be enjoyed within the first few days of arriving on your doorstep. These rare fruits, like the Crown melon, are also a big part of Japan’s gift-giving culture.
Some farms closer to home sell these types of rare fruits: Oishii vertical farms are based in the US and use Japanese strawberry seeds and ancient farming techniques to grow $50-per-box strawberries.
