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That's US$650 for 100g. ~$32 for one Nigiri, so more like $50-$80 at a restaurant per piece, and only the belly meat fetches such high prices. Who on earth eats
by ricardobeat 7y ago
That's US$650 for 100g. ~$32 for one Nigiri, so more like $50-$80 at a restaurant per piece, and only the belly meat fetches such high prices. Who on earth eats this?
On a more serious note, won't the high price only encourage fisheries to violate their quotas and drive Bluefin to extinction?
- dvh 7y agoMaybe it's like with art. It's used as money loundering.
- germinalphrase 7y agohow can you launder money if you can’t resell the fish?
- ecmascript 7y agoI think the user suggests that the money never change owner, it just becomes laundered. For example. If you get money in some illegal way and need to launder it. You can use it as a "customer" at your own coffee house and pay a ridiculous amount for a latte. The money then goes to the bank and become laundered. That is how money laundering work afaik.
- ProfessorLayton 7y agoCash-based businesses tend to be under higher scrutiny for money laundering. For example, a laundry mat may also have its water bills audited etc. to make sure their costs correspond with their income. Laundering money at scale is actually a pretty big nuisance, unless you have and evil bank like HSBC to assist you [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Money_laundering_(2003,_2010,_2012_and_2015) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC#Money_laundering_(2003,_2...
- markdown 7y ago> laundry mat Not to be that guy, but it's laundromat.
- CryptoPunk 7y ago>>Laundering money at scale is actually a pretty big nuisance A nuisance but not one that will stop criminal enterprises which tend to have extremely high profit margins. Society gives up a lot freedom in the quest to stop illicit cash from circulating. It necessarily requires making all financial transactions subject to formulaic 'suspicious transaction' reporting requirements, which is a form of warrantless mass-surveillance.
- nneonneo 7y agoPlus, good restaurants want to serve fresh tuna so most of it would have to be cut up and served that day. So the demand must be there, somehow. Or, maybe this is an expensive marketing stunt. The guy who bought the big tuna is the owner of a chain of moderately priced conveyor-belt sushi restaurants; hard to imagine he’s pushing $60 nigiri through them. He does say that he might’ve gone a bit over (https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/asia/giant-tuna-sets-record-at-japan-auction/index.html); https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/05/asia/giant-tuna-sets-record-a... he was expecting to pay $300-500K USD.
- jacquesm 7y agoPaying 3-6 times as much as you intend to pay for something isn't 'a bit over'. Impulse buy? Bidding war and unable to see clearly? Or simply so rich that it doesn't matter?
- ryankupyn 7y agoPossibly still a reasonable buy for him even at 3-6x what was expected if the higher price generates enough extra press coverage.
- ricardobeat 7y agoHaven't seen a single mention of his restaurant chain in the news though. The CNN article even mentions a competitor restaurant, but not his!
- Hydraulix989 7y agoWell TBF, the Reuters article mentions this one though.
- jsjw7sbw 7y agoI think the tuna is already frozen when they buy it.
- 7y ago
- sdoering 7y agoWell at minus 96% in numbers Bluefin could already be called extinct. at least nearly extinct. And it isn't the only tuna species extremely near extinction. I believe one should think about the personal necessity of consuming this species.
- jdsully 7y agoThe Pacific Bluefin is only listed as Vulnerable while the Atlantic is Endangered. It may seem like exaggerating will encourage more action, but my experience is it just causes people to tune out.
- noodle 7y agoTo answer both questions, IIRC it's more of a symbolic (and probably marketing related) thing, not really reflective of market prices.
- sevencolors 7y agoAccording to the high bidder he does it on purpose to generate marketing and good luck > In Japan, paying more than half a million dollars on a single fish is considered good luck for business (and also comes with a round of free publicity). https://qz.com/878980/a-japanese-sushi-chain-owner-just-bought-a-600000-tuna-at-tsukiji-fish-market-for-good-luck/ https://qz.com/878980/a-japanese-sushi-chain-owner-just-boug...
- tyre 7y agoThe real marketing geniuses are the fishmongers then.
- amelius 7y ago> On a more serious note, won't the high price only encourage fisheries to violate their quotas and drive Bluefin to extinction? Yes, it's a basic flaw in the free market.
- java-man 7y agoI would say it's rather descibed by tragedy of commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
- elfexec 7y ago> That's US$650 for 100g. ~$32 for one Nigiri, so more like $50-$80 at a restaurant per piece, and only the belly meat fetches such high prices. It's a PR move more than anything. How much press does this get the buyer and the market as whole? A lot more than he paid for the tuna. > On a more serious note, won't the high price only encourage fisheries to violate their quotas and drive Bluefin to extinction? It's a once in a year publicity stunt. They don't pay record prices every day. But yes, if bluefin or any resource brought in record prices every day, it would certainly entice unscruplous people to cheat which would lead even the honest people to cheat - tragedy of the commons.
- beamatronic 7y agoBusiness travelers with expense accounts.
- pvaldes 7y ago> won't the high price only encourage fisheries to violate their quotas and drive Bluefin to extinction? Yes, will add a lot of pressure to the population (that eventually will be crushed).