Q. Why are fruits so expensive in Japan ?

A. When you see fruits at a department store in Japan, you’ll be surprised to see 10USD apple, 50USD grapes or 100USD melon. Well, that’s not where we buy fruits😅. These fancy fruits beautifully packed and presented in a basket 🧺 or a box are usually for gift 🎁 . Then where do we buy fruits ? At local supermarket or grocery stores. When you walk around Tokyo, you don’t see those local supermarket because these are usually in residential area, not in sightseeing or shopping area such as Shibuya or Shinjuku and thus you don’t get to see fruits for daily life. At supermarket, You can get an apple for 1USD, grapes for 7USD, depends on the type of melon but a melon for around 10USD, maybe 1.5 times higher at the beginning of its season. You may think it’s still expensive but there is a reason. Japan is a small country already and 70% of the land is mountains not really suitable for fruits farming. So we have very small fruits farm where mass farming is not possible, machines can’t get in and everything has to be done by hands. As a result, the cost of fruits becomes higher and it’s almost impossible for Japanese farmers to compete with cheap imported fruits. So instead of competing in price, they compete in quality. Fruits in Japan are very, VERY sweet. Some of my guests thought it’s artificially sweetened but it’s never. Sometimes I see small sticker with number attached to each fruits. The number shows sweetness level. As it goes up, it’s sweeter. Farmers check sweetness of each individual fruit using sensor so they are sure fruits they produced are sweet and we, consumers, are sure fruits we get are sweet. Try some fruits. You won’t regret even if you pay double the price you would pay in your country !

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