OSAKA - A rare selection of salted herring roe — a traditional Japanese New Year’s dish said to bring good luck — has fetched a record price of more than ¥100,000 per kilogram at a wholesale market auction in the city of Osaka.
The Osaka Municipal Wholesale Market handled salted red herring from the United States, Canada and some of the highest-grade caviar from Hokkaido for its opening auction Tuesday of the New Year’s produce.
It was a record sale for salted herring roe at the market located in Fukushima Ward.
Herring roe, or kazunoko, meaning number (kazu) and child (ko), symbolizes a wish to be blessed with many children in the new year. The auction price was expected to be higher this year due to a drop in the Pacific herring haul compared with last year.
Teiji Mizobuchi, president of a marine products wholesale company, made the successful bid for the salted herring roe product called Shio-kazunoko Marehibiki.
“I will sell this regardless of making a profit,” he said.
A limit of five boxes of the osechi-ryori New Year’s dish specialty was shipped to the Hanshin Department Store in Kita Ward, Osaka.
Regularly processed salted herring roe sold for ¥10,000 per kilogram, the same as last year. A large number of shipments of salted herring roe arrived from Canada, a favored source among Japanese customers.
Demand for salted herring roe, sold at department stores and supermarkets around the nation, starts to rise as the end of the year approaches.
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