An eager bidder in Japan paid nearly 25,000 dollars for a single pair of cantaloupes today.

The eye-watering price came at an auction in Sapporo in northern Japan.

It matched a record set in 2008 for the cantaloupes, which are known as Yubari melons for the area where they’re grown.

Each year the season’s first auction at the Sapporo City Wholesale Market generates headlines.

Yubari melons fetch top dollar and make popular gifts.

This year a pair of melons sold for 2.5 million yen.

The winner of the auction said he hopes the record price will spark interest among consumers in produce from Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost prefecture.

The wholesaler who submitted the bid displayed the melons at a store, and plans to hold an event where they will be sold.