Before I begin this isn’t meant to defame or diss the brands, this is for educational purposes only.
Information here has been updated as of 10/4 with information directly provided by the farm. 

Where does the 19$ Strawberry come from?

So like many people on social media, I kept seeing “Viral $19 strawberry” posts about a certain strawberry being sold in Erewhon, LA, a store that sells a lot of luxury grocery items. Although I’ve visited LA a few times, I don’t think I’ve ever set foot in Erewhon, and since I’m living in Japan, I probably won’t anytime soon. However, my curiosity about this strawberry and the buzz marketing behind it grew,  particularly since I never heard of Elly Amai Kyoto before.

While high-priced luxury strawberries are common in Japan, buzz or influencer marketing is rarely used for them. These fruits are typically reserved for gifts or special occasions rather than everyday consumption. You don’t typically see people lining 6 hours to take a TikTok of them.
The strawberry is sold by Elly Amai, a business that currently offers strawberries and musk melons from Japan. Despite having “Kyoto” in their name, I’ve never come across this brand in Kyoto (after living here for almost three years, I’d probably have noticed). My guess is that the owner simply has an affinity for Kyoto rather than the brand being based there. Interestingly, the name has led to some confusion among Japanese bloggers, who assume the viral strawberries are from Kyoto—but as I’ll explain, that’s not the case.

Elly Amai – the distributor but not the source.

I saw someone on Reddit share the flyer/brand explainer that’s being used to promote the strawberry.

What caught my eye were two aspects of this flyer.
1. The flag not actually being where Kyoto is in Japan.
2. The claim that “organic strawberries are rare accounting for only 0.002% of Japan’s total strawberry harvest”.

At first, the second claim caught my attention, as Japan is home to many organic or pesticide-free strawberry farms where you can pick strawberries. However, after speaking directly with the farm owner, she shared the following insight with me:

The term “organic” (or “yuki” in Japanese) is legally regulated. In order to be labeled as organic, farms must be officially certified under the Organic JAS system. Strawberries are extremely delicate crops, and obtaining Organic JAS certification for them is particularly challenging. As of now, it is said that only around 10 strawberry producers in all of Japan hold this certification — making organic strawberries extremely rare. For accurate information, we recommend reaching out directly to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

So I decided to search that claim word for word and came across another site that has it.

Anhay Ichigo – The real strawberry source

The certified organic strawberry farm Anhay Ichigo, based in Tochigi, makes the exact same claim, word for word. Coincidence? Not quite. Keep reading.

At first, the site seemed a bit suspicious as several links didn’t work on my web browser, and while some functioned on mobile, they often led to the wrong places. For instance, their Instagram link (on mobile) was redirected to an architecture firm in Nagoya. This only added to my skepticism. (update 10/04) The farm told me they’re actively working on fixing their site. If you’re interested in their products I highly recommend DM-ing them on Instagram (link below).

However, after digging deeper and searching for the company directly, I found legitimate information about their business, including their actual Instagram page.

On their Instagram page, I found a post featuring individually packaged strawberries that closely resembled the ones sold at Erewhon. Then, in their LA story highlights, I spotted reposts from customers who had purchased the strawberries at Erewhon and tagged Elly Amai—bringing everything full circle.

I also found a Today piece that specifies that Elly Amai does get the strawberries from Tochigi but does not name the farm (which isn’t quite fair in my opinion).

From Anhay Ichigo’s website, we can see that they sell strawberries for 3000 yen.  

They also sell their strawberries at Japanese farmers markets.  In conversation with the farm owner, she told me At farmers’ markets, we offer various types and grades of strawberries — ranging from luxurious gift items to more affordable options for everyday enjoyment — so that we can meet the diverse needs of our customers.

I do not know who Elly Amai is or whether it is the same person or people behind Anhay Ichigo but one thing can be said for sure is that Elly Amai imports strawberries from Anhay Ichigo’s farm in Tochigi.

In a TikTok from an influencer, they mentioned that their strawberries were “hand-delivered by the owner of the strawberry company herself.” Based on the context, it seems they were referring to Elly Amai rather than Anhay Ichigo. When asked about this in the comments, the influencer responded, saying the owner is based in California—making the “Kyoto” in their name feel even more random. Maybe they have a Japanese subsidiary in Kyoto dealing with various farms? Right now it isn’t quite clear.

I do hope that Anhay Ichigo improves its online website and e-commerce site so that it is less suspicious and that people interested in the strawberries can directly buy from them, rather than letting other companies take a certain % of earnings. (the farm told me they are working on updating their site which is great news!) . The farm is owned by a mixed Japanese female entrepreneur Juliza Suzuki, so if you want to support a woman-owned business in Japan be sure to contact her and buy from her farm! She directly messaged me saying she prefers to be connected via the farm Instagram account mentioned above. 

As for whether it’s a ripoff, the previously linked article from Today notes that express delivery of fresh fruit is quite costly and hence influences the price, which makes sense. While it’s not clear how much of the earnings go back to the farm, I hope a fair portion does. For the most part, I believe the majority of the cost has more to do with the transportation than it is with the actual fruit. One thing for sure is that this avenue of influencer marketing is one to watch, where a common commodity in Japan becomes a luxury item overseas. This definitely isn’t the first product to do this (we can see it similarly with the matcha craze) and won’t be the last.

Update 10/4

The farm got in contact with me and gave me more information to accurately write about their farm. I’ve amended the article as per what they detailed to me. They also mentioned they are in an open dialogue with Elly Amai to continue refining how the brand is presented and communicated and they value their role in helping introduce their products to the world.

When I checked Elly Amai’s website it looked like they had some various changes it directly highlights the farms they source their fruits from now which is a good improvement!