Would you pay $5 for a single strawberry? This company is counting on it.
How high a premium would you pay for the perfect piece of fruit? The folks behind the Omakase strawberry bet you’ll pay $5 per small berry (the large ones fetch $6.25 each). In fact, Oishii Berry, the grower of the opulent fruit, is counting on a windfall of customers, so much so that the company raised $50 million to bring more of the luxury items to America. Called the “Tesla of vertically farmed strawberries,” the Omakase, cultivated in the Japanese Alps, contains twice as much sugar as regular strawberries and is said to be “profoundly aromatic.” But unlike the original Omakase, these beauties matured in New Jersey. Though available for sale by reservation in only a few New York City restaurants, the company hopes these berries will go mainstream in the near future; according to Oishii CEO Hiroki Koga, one day, they’ll be priced so that “anyone can buy these strawberries in their local supermarket.” No telling yet what that will amount to per berry.
