Luxury Strawberry Company Oishii Breeds Its Most Affordable Fruit Yet
Named the Nikko, the new premium berry promises a “juicy center bursting with summer sun.”
Photo courtesy of Oishii
Berry exciting news for anyone with a deep love for fancy strawberries but without deep pockets: Oishii — the agriculture company behind the “sweet and creamy” Omakase and “subtly tart and firm” Koyo luxury berries as well as the shiny, red, flavor-optimized Rubi tomato — is releasing a third new strawberry varietal. And the new premium berry — the Nikko — is Oishii’s most affordable one yet.
Nikko, which the U.S. company says translates to “sunshine” in Japanese, is described as having a “lively tartness, crisp texture, balanced sweetness and juicy center bursting with summer sun.”
Grown without pesticides in indoor vertical farms in New Jersey, the Nikko represents Oishii’s play to bring its premium “Japanese strawberry experience” to American consumers at “increasingly attainable price points,” the brand says.
“As Oishii continues to grow, we are thrilled to be able to offer consumers more variety in flavor and accessibility,” Hiroki Koga, Oishii’s CEO and co-founder, says in a press release. “The new Nikko Berry is a prime example of our commitment to reinvent agriculture.”
Oishii promises year-round freshness and reduced food waste, due to higher standards of “consistency, quality and flavor” in each tray of berries than traditional varietals. “Oishii Berries are a flavor experience unlike any other in the U.S, as each varietal has its own uniquely appetizing color, flavor, texture and aroma,” the brand promises.
Photo courtesy of Oishii
The retail price for the Nikko berry starts at $7.99 per tray, and while that’s not exactly cheap, it’s a lot less than the brand’s first berry, the Omakase, which sold for $6 per berry when it was initially launched. The primary reason for the Nikko berry’s more reasonable price is that more berries grow per plant than Oishii’s other varietals.
“This breakthrough reflects the scale, automation, and continuous research happening inside our vertical farms — where we’ve conducted a few hundred years’ worth of experiments in just the last year alone,” Koga says. “From launching our first product at $50 in 2018, to now retailing berries in the single digits, we’re excited to see how far we can go at this pace.”
Even if $7.99 for a tray of premium strawberries still sounds like kind of a splurge to you, it’s inarguably more affordable than that $19 strawberry that went viral at Erewhon last month. The luxury fruit market sure seems to be heating up.
Use this store locator to find the Nikko berry near you.
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