夕張メロン、２玉２７０万円　昨年の２２倍―札幌初競り

　北海道の初夏の風物詩、夕張メロンの初競りが２４日午前、札幌市の中央卸売市場で行われた。４６６玉が出荷され、最も高いものは１箱（２玉入り）２７０万円で落札された。価格は、新型コロナウイルスの感染が広がり始めた影響で大きく落ち込んだ昨年（１２万円）と比べ、２２倍以上に跳ね上がった。
　落札したのはベビーフードを手掛ける「北海道プロダクツ」（札幌市）。インターネット交流サイト（ＳＮＳ）で募集し、抽選で子どもがいる１０家庭に急速冷凍したメロンを贈る。鹿毛伊織社長は「コロナ禍で大変だが、夕張メロンで元気になってほしい」と話した。（2021/05/24-10:22）

A pair of Yubari melons sold for 2.7 million yen in the first auction of this season at a wholesale market in Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, on Monday.
   The price, the highest among all pairs of Yubari melons auctioned at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market on the day, was up by more than 22-fold from the maximum price of 120,000 yen in last year's first auction. Last year's highest price dived from a record high of 5 million yen in 2019 as the novel coronavirus began to spread rapidly around the country at the time.
   A total of 466 melons from the city of Yubari in Hokkaido were put up for auction at the market on Monday. Yubari melons are known as a seasonal delicacy, with the first auction for the fruit at the Sapporo wholesale market indicating the arrival of early summer in Hokkaido.
   The 2.7-million-yen melons were purchased by Hokkaido Products Ltd., a baby food maker in Sapporo. The company will quickly freeze the melons and send them as gifts to a total of 10 families with children to be selected by lottery from among households filing applications on social media.
   "We want to cheer up people with the Yubari melons at a time when hardships from the pandemic are continuing," Hokkaido Products President Iori Kage said.