President of sushi restaurant chain Sushi-Zanmai, Kiyoshi Kimura (R), displays a 278kg bluefin tuna at his main restaurant in Tokyo on January 5, 2019. AFP / Kazuhiro NOGI
One of the world’s most expensive fish just got pricier.
A 278-kilogram bluefin tuna sold for 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million) at a Tokyo fish market Saturday. The record price -- which equates to about $5,000 a pound -- is more than double the previous high set in 2013, according to Masayuki Fukuda, an official in charge of trading operations at the Tokyo market.
Kiyomura Corp., which runs the Sushizanmai restaurant chain across Japan, made the winning bid, the Nikkei newspaper reported. The high-priced tuna will be served at regular prices at a Sushizanmai outlet in Tsukiji later on Saturday, the report said, estimating that the fish may cost an average of more than $200 per serving.
'We did too much,' Kiyoshi Kimura, the owner of the chain, told reporters. 'I expected it would be between 30 million yen and 50 million yen, or 60 million yen, but it ended up five times more expensive,' according to television footage of him speaking to the media.
The record-topping fish was caught off Oma in northern Japan. It was sold on the first day of auction sales for 2019 at a center close to Tokyo Bay that opened in October following the relocation of the city’s main fish market in Tsukiji, near the upscale shopping area of Ginza.
