The bunch of about 30 grapes of the Ruby Roman variety sold for 1.1m yen (£8,350) – about £270 a grape. A bunch of grapes has fetched a record price at an auction in Japan, where the fruit is considered a status symbol. Over the years, they were then cultivated into the Roman Ruby variety, which was named after submissions from the public in 2004. “These are truly Ruby Roman gems,” bidder Takamaru Konishi from western Japan told the press. According to the Ruby Roman club website run by the Ishikawa prefecture, the cultivation process began in 1992 when seeds of the Fujiminori variety were sown.

Source: The Guardian July 07, 2016 11:43 UTC