The season's first pair of Japan's luxurious Yubari melons was sold yesterday for 2.5 mil. Yen (US$ 23,772), the highest bidding price ever, at a Sapporo auction in the northern island of Hokkaido. The price is a record high, surpassing the 2 million yen a pair fetched last year. A hybrid created in 1960, seedlings of the Yubari King are planted under vinyl greenhouses in February and 105 days later the first melons are carefully handpicked. The harvest continues until August.

Only 154 of about 230 farmers in the former coal-mine town of Yubari have the right to plant the melon seeds.