Consumer sales began recently of the world's first seedless persimmons, a sweeter variety developed by Fukuoka Prefecture that producers hope will expand their sales channels at home and overseas.
The Akiou (King of Autumn) is a nonastringent variety of persimmon with a bright orange skin, crunchy texture and high sugar content. It is almost devoid of seeds, thanks to nearly decade-long efforts to improve the fruit.
Seedless astringent persimmons have been around for some time, and the prefectural agricultural research center of Fukuoka, the nation's No. 1 producer of persimmons, began working on the new variety around 2001, meeting with success roughly nine years later.
"There are seedless sour persimmons, but Akiou is the world's first sweet persimmon with hardly any seeds," a prefectural official said.
When the first crop was brought to market on Oct. 17, 1-kg boxes containing two Akiou each sold for up to ¥100,000 ($834), according to a regional agricultural cooperative.
At a department store in the city of Fukuoka, the persimmons are selling for a hefty ¥1,296 each, partly because merely 6 tons of seedless persimmons are expected to be harvested this year.
The regional cooperative involved is hoping to further expand production and sales venues.
Hiroyuki Chijiwa, who worked on the seedless persimmons at the agricultural research center, said it has become difficult to manage farms just by producing low-end crops. "With high-quality produce, we should even be able to compete abroad."
