Bunch of 'rare' grapes sells for £465 in Japanese fruit auction

This perhaps goes some way to explaining how a single bunch of grapes yesterday fetched a record £465  - the equivalent of £13 per grape.

A hotel manager paid that amount for a 1.5lb of Ruby Roman grapes to serve guests.

"We believe the price was probably a record high," said local agricultural official Hirofumi Isu.

"They're delicious - sweet but fresh at the same time, very well balanced."

Fruitcake? A handful of new Ruby Roman grapes which sold for £460 in Japan

The tomato-coloured grapes made their debut at an auction in Japan's northwestern Ishikawa prefecture, where they have been under development since 1994 in a state-led project.

The bunch that fetched the top price had about 35 grapes, each slightly smaller than a pingpong ball, Isu said.

The average price for the Ruby Roman grapes at Monday's auction was about £120 a bunch.

Isu said local farmers hope to sell 1,500 bunches, or 1 ton, of the grapes by mid-September.

Fruit is generally expensive in Japan, and people often buy grapes, peaches and melons as luxury gifts.

Japanese are often willing to pay top prices for high-end fruits, especially for the prestige of owning the very first ones of the year.

Monday's prices far exceeded those for the most popular premium variety, Muscat of Alexandria, which sell for as much as £45 a bunch at Tokyo's Ota fruit market, the country's largest, according to Koichi Kato, an official at fruit wholesaler Tokyo Seika Co.

"It could be a congratulatory price for its debut," Kato said of Monday's auction in Ishikawa.

"Tokyo's largest fruit market is very competitive."