Tuna at the first New Year’s Eve auction in Tokyo failed to break the 2019 record
Tuna at the first New Year’s auction at the Toyosu fish market in Tokyo failed to break the record of 2019, but came as close as possible to it – the fish weighing 276 kilograms was sold for 207 million yen ($1.316 million), Kyodo News Agency reported.
The first tuna auction of the New Year usually attracts a lot of attention, as it is unofficially considered a marker of economic trends and a kind of forecast for the year. “Tuna” forecast is not always accurate, but the high price at the first auction is seen as a good omen: the higher the price for the most expensive tuna, the more successful the year will be for the country’s economy.
This year’s tuna sold for the second-highest price after a record-breaking 2019: the carcass was sold for 333 million yen, which amounted to $3.1 million at the exchange rate at the time.
Two companies – Yamayuki Wholesale and sushi restaurant Sushi Ginza Onodera – joined forces to win the auction, the fifth time their tandem has managed to buy the most expensive tuna at the first auction of the year. Usually, the first auction of the New Year is held for carcasses caught at the end of the year. However, the tuna caught on January 4 has now fetched the highest price.
The price of tuna at the first auction reflects and “predicts” economic trends quite accurately: after the record-breaking 2019 auction in 2020, the price began to fall but still remained above the 100 million yen level at 193.2 million yen ($1.8 million), despite the fact that at that time no one had yet imagined the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. But even then, there was already a downward trend.
In 2021, the most expensive tuna was sold for 20 million yen, which at the exchange rate at the time was 202 thousand dollars, and in 2022, anticipating an even greater deterioration in the economy, a tuna weighing 211 kilograms was sold for only 16.88 million yen, which at the exchange rate at the time was 145 thousand dollars. In 2023, the upswing began, with twice as much being paid for the most expensive tuna as the year before: a 212-kilogram tuna was sold for 36 million yen ($266,000 at the exchange rate at the time).
In 2024, for the first time since 2019, the price of the most expensive tuna was higher than the previous year and for the first time since 2020, it broke the important psychological mark of 100 million yen: 114 million yen (about 800 thousand dollars at the exchange rate at the time) was paid for a fish weighing 238 kilograms.