A GREENGROCER is flogging Britain’s most expensive apples — for £15 each.
The fruit, flown in by Notting Hill Fish + Meat Shop from Japan, costs the equivalent of nearly £42 a kilo — 14 times the price at a market stall within half a mile.
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A melon — also imported from the Far East — will set shoppers back almost £100, while a punnet of extra-large grapes is £80.
Despite the eye-watering cost, the West London shop is a favourite with celebrity locals, including David Beckham, 49, and Margot Robbie, 34, while singer Dua Lipa, 29, is also said to be a fan.
But Meraj Eshagh, 59, who runs a stall at nearby Portobello Road Market, scoffed at the sky-high prices, saying: “You must be joking
“Are you serious? I have no clue why they’d be selling them for that.
“We sell apples for £3 a kilo.”
Grown in the Aomori prefecture, 400 miles north of Tokyo, the apples weigh about 12oz, roughly twice the size of a braeburn.
They are thought to be Fujis, which usually cost a few pounds online.
Yet the fruit is proving a hit — Becks is said to be a regular at the shop, loading his basket with the pricey produce, including the £15 apples and £50 punnets of strawberries.
A source said: “He spends an absolute fortune on the Japanese apples and other fruit — I suppose he can afford it.”
One shopper, 56, who comes in three to four times a week to buy groceries and salmon for her dog, said: “It’s delicious.
“I would rather spend the money and have a memorable experience.”
Consultant Kirill Voronin, 30, who travelled from Richmond to pick up his £300 haul, said: “We’ve got a lot of stuff.
“It’s convenient and it’s good.”
- Additional reporting: Harriette Boucher
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