JAPAN - Melons and other fruits are a hot, highly sought-after commodity in Japan, making it that much more of a sting when two separate farmers reported hundreds missing from their properties earlier this month.

One farmer was upset to discover as many as 1,400 Rupia Red melons missing from six of his greenhouses, located in the Miyagasaki region.

“It’s unfortunate,” the farmer told the Fuji News Network. “1,400 melons, that’s quite painful.”

Desired for their red flesh and high sugar content, the news source reports that the melons were valued at a total of about 700,000 yen (over $6,400.)

The theft, the grower reported, was discovered on May 9th, just one week after another man discovered 200 melons missing from his property in Hokota City. That incident, which took place on May 2nd, cost the grower upward of 120,000 yen (more than $1,100.)

As we’ve reported previously, the popularity of melons in Japan has been cause for astonishing bids at auction when it comes to just the right varieties. Around this time last year, a pair of Yubari melons went for 2.5 million yen (about $20,500) and in June of 2014 a rare, black skinned watermelon sold at an auction for 350,000 yen (more than $3,000).

As for finding the stolen melons, Ibaraki police confirmed that they regularly receive reports of thefts from farmers in the area.

The higher the risk, the greater the reward. And it seems there’s great rewards, and the risks that come with them, to melon growing in Japan.