They cite that as happening at a wholesale auction. The photograph depicts mango for 9800 yen, about $100. Still absurd, but more than an order of magnitude less.
It puts me in mind of the guy who breaks records every year by buying a tuna for millions of dollars:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/07/168813383/th...
I'd just as soon not get one that I'd feel weird about eating for being supremely expensive... but I can say that I'm happy to have "slow food" that somebody put time and effort into.
I'm not sure where I'd draw the line between the two. Perhaps a factor of 2. Maybe even 10. But please don't give me a $100 mango.
The $100 fruit is a premium item that comes in a nice box appropriate to send as a gift. Note: This isn't that different from the premium gift boxes sold in the U.S. (e.g., Harry and David box of six pears and some nuts for $100).
In this case, I think it helps to consider the mango as art rather than food.
It's a similar thing with Koi Carp.
Ah, if it was only the thought that counted... :)
Honestly though, I wonder if there's a cottage industry around expensive gifts in Japan, if this is the case. Is it easy to market a new fruit growing technique to produce the hot new omiyage and sell it at an insane mark up? Because that seems to be what matters more than utility or thoughtfulness.
It's a good thing, these aren't considered pseudo-bribery or "large gifts" in Japan.
宮崎産: Miazaki san: product of Miyazaki Prefecture.
Still, $100 is well into diminshing returns of crazy, so $2000 wouldn't make much of a difference.
If memory serves, when I stayed in Tokyo for a month some 15 or 16 years ago, I was absolutely puzzled by the lack of affordable fruit.
Besides, Japanese produce growers seem to have an unhealthy obsession with sweetness. Most Japanese fruits seem to be advertised for their sweetness, and they ARE sweet, so much so that you taste almost nothing else, not even hints of fruitiness.
