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The gourmet berry from Japanese vendor Elly Amai would arrive, to no one’s surprise, at the VIP supermarket Erewhon. Since then, content creators have not wanted to miss the opportunity to make videos reacting to the luxury strawberry that has revolutionised the internet. With a price tag of 19 dollars a piece, everyone wanted to participate in the debate by questioning its price; and whether it is really worth it or whether it is just a marketing strategy to attract new generations in search of constant viralisation. Are we facing the perfect strawberry?
In this sense, Alyssa Antoci, niece of the owners of the luxury grocery shop, would become famous on TikTok after sharing her review of the Elly Amai berry. The influencer says it’s the best strawberry she’s ever tasted, and the presentation is impeccable: it arrives individually packaged on a cushion inside a miniature plastic cap that protects the jewel.
This designer fruit joins the collection of exorbitantly priced fruits that can be found in Tokyo supermarkets. From $12 apples to this $19 sculpted strawberry, whose value is justified by its smaller crop size and idyllic aesthetic.
Elly Amai is the ultra-luxury fruit supplier that distributes and sells these strawberries, but it is not the farm that grows them. The variety of Tochiaika strawberries developed at a farm called Anhay is fairly new and ‘perfected’ from crossbreeding over the course of seven years, starting in 2011.
From there they sprout with a perfectly sweet taste and ‘minimal acidity’, as described by their seller. From the Asian country they are transported to LA to be displayed at Erewhon at their optimum ripeness, arriving at the supermarket within 23-48 hours of harvesting to ensure that their quality does not degrade.
According to Elly Amai, the price customers pay at Erewhon is similar to what they would pay for these berries in Japan. He even points out that Tochiaika berries might be somewhat cheaper in the US because the purchasing power of the Japanese yen is at historic lows, and Elly Amai receives lower rates for introducing farmers to new markets. Although the supplier mentions that the cost of airfreighting a berry to the US is about the same as the price of the fruit, it does not detail how this affects the final cost to US versus Japanese consumers.