Japanese Snow Crabs Sells For $44,000 In An Auction!

Fishing season is on for Japan, and the sale of a $44,000 or 5 million yen snow crab marks the beginning of the fishing port auction in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Among the 58 tones of Saturday’s haul, only one met the criteria for the auction. The male snow crab met the base criteria of 1.5kg in weight and 14.5 inches in shell diameter.

Screengrab from NHK report

The auction took place on the Kanazawa port, and the buyer is a chef from a local inn. He stated that the high amount he bid is a sign of gratitude to the fishers who put in such hard work despite the pandemic.

In a similar auction at Fukui Prefecture, a snow crab brought in 800,000 yen on the same day. The buyer was a local restaurant owner who wanted to show his customers that the pandemic hasn’t affected the business harshly and the establishments are doing just fine!

Toshiaki Nakamura after successfully bidding on the crab for 800,000 yen in the town of Echizen. Photo: KYODO

The practice of selling such crabs in Fukui Prefecture only started in 2015. The authorities decided to hand-select a very high grade of crabs under strict criteria to go for auctions.

Crab sold in 2019 for $44,000

The crab from Ishikawa prefecture is the second crab ever to fetch that high of a price. In 2019, a similar auction in Tottori Prefecture had a crab sold for the same rate.

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