Japanese have broken their previous records in paying extraordinary sums for fruit with a head chef in Ishikawa prefecture buying a single bunch of grapes for one million yen (USD 8,200).

The selling came Thursday in a wholesale auction in the capital of Ishikawa prefecture, Kanazawa, around 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Tokyo, where Masayuki Hirai’s bidding for the Ruby Roman broke a previous record of 550,000 yen set for the same type of grape last year.

The local office of Japan Agricultural Cooperative in Ishikawa said the bunch contained 26 berries, each weighing at least 20 grams and the size of a ping-pong ball. That means a single berry was worth USD 315 or 38,000 yen.

Masayuki, a head chef of the Nikko hotel in Kanazawa, said he wanted to show the world what sort of attractions there are for tourists to visit Ishikawa, especially as the area is to be connected to Japan’s high-speed railway, making the travel much easier. He said the grapes will be served as dessert at the hotel’s restaurants in the next few days.

"With the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) line, I was told to win the bidding at any cost," he said.

Japan is known as a country where fruit can cost a small fortune. Earlier this year, bidders paid 1.5 million yen for a pair of Yubari melons from Hokkaido, northern Japan.

The high-priced fruits are also used as gifts in Japan, with people paying jaw-dropping sums for virgin batches.