日本天價方形西瓜受俄羅斯富人追捧

Pity the nouveau riche Russians who missed last week's bargain on Japanese-grown, cube-shaped watermelons at high-end Moscow markets: Just $700.

But news of the novelty, a couple of weeks before the start of Russia's watermelon season, has boosted the price in recent days to around $860, according to news reports.

That's more than 300 times the price of your standard melon, the Kyodo news agency said.

Japanese like to give watermelons as presents, especially during the summer gift-giving season known as ochugen.

Early in their development, the melons are put into transparent boxes, where they grow to maturity.

Why the cube? To save space in the small refrigerators found in the cramped quarters of most Japanese. Compared with Russia, the melons are a steal: about $80.

Before The Moscow Times carried an Interfax news agency report Friday on the strange fruit, they weren't leaping out of the bins.

"There has been no rush," an assistant said at one of the unidentified chain's stores. A few customers had bought them "just for fun."

Over the weekend, the price jumped about $150 as demand rose.

Not bad for something intended only as a decoration: The melons were picked for export to Russia before they were ripe, the BBC notes.你見過方形的西瓜嗎？日前，由日本培育的方形西瓜受到了俄羅斯富人的追捧。在莫斯科一家連鎖商店內，每個方形西瓜的價格高達860美元（約合5300元人民幣），是普通西瓜價格的300倍。

據《今日美國報》網站7月18日報道，方形西瓜是在日本培育的，最初只是爲了方便存儲，節省空間。它並不是轉基因西瓜，只是人們在培育時，將其放在一個透明的盒子裏，所以成熟時它就長成了方形。日本人喜歡把西瓜當做禮物送人。這些方形西瓜尚未成熟時就在日本摘下，銷往俄羅斯。

方形西瓜與普通西瓜的味道相同，重量也差不多，大約每個6公斤，唯一不同的就是二者之間的價格。方形西瓜的價格已經迅速上漲到860美元左右，大約是普通西瓜的300倍。再過2周，俄羅斯自產的西瓜將在8月1日前後上架，普通西瓜的價格大約是每公斤15盧布（約爲每斤1.4元人民幣）

和俄羅斯相比，方形西瓜在原產地日本就很便宜，每個大約80美元（約合490元人民幣）。

俄羅斯某連鎖商店的銷售助理表示，“西瓜熱”並沒有出現，有的顧客購買方形西瓜“只是爲了好玩”。方形西瓜在俄羅斯最初售價700美元。不過，隨着需求增加，價格一路飆升到860美元。