TOKYO, JAPAN: Their town has gone under, but farmers in Yubari in northern Japan are still seeing the fruits of their labour rewarded.

A pair of melons in the former mining town, which filed for bankruptcy this winter in a high-profile case, fetched a record two million yen (16,610 dollars) on May 15th, on the first day of an annual auction.

Yubari is famous for its melons but more recently become synonymous with the decline of Japan's countryside and fiscal reform, with the central government refusing to pay off massive debts blamed on wasteful projects.

The melons, a local variety that taste similar to cantaloupes, weighed 4.5 kilograms (nearly 10 pounds) together.

"A high price is given to farmers as a customary gift on the first day of the auction," said Yoshinobu Kimura, a market analyst.

"But the price was especially high this year compared with that of last year, which was 800,000 yen" for a pair, he added.

A department store in Sapporo, the largest city on the northern island of Hokkaido, bought the melons which it will sell for one million yen each, in a bid to recoup its outlay.

This year's harvest is reputed to be the juiciest in years, thanks to excellent weather.