Yamato Rouge, Japan’s very first red sweetcorn, has been created by a seed and seedling manufacturer in Tenri, Nara prefecture. The company, Yamato Noen, has been studying and creating and nurturing crop seeds for exceeding than 100 years, and its fresh red sweetcorn began being grown on farms nationwide in 2023. With its burgundy colour , unique from particular yellow and white sweetcorn, the photogenic food has been spreading on social media sites, and staff at the company could not be more excited. Some remarks on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram involve “It has a wonderful colour, and it smells good, too” and “It looks like a valuable jewel”.
The intense red colour, which is only on the surface of the kernels, comes from anthocyanin, a pigment that creates blues and reds in plants. Yamato Rouge can be harvested two times in a year – in summer and autumn – not similar to the particular ordinary sweetcorn we all are aware about. As the Ms Kumi Kaneko suggests of Yamato Noen’s product development department, the company made a decision to create the red sweetcorn about five years ago. The red colouring adds colour to the dining table, whets the appetite and is even said to provide them more energy, she conveyed.
We wished to create something that results in people smiling as soon as they shuck it,” said Ms Kaneko, 46. In the starting, the company faced a problem to grow Yamato Rouge. The sweetcorn variety did not grow well because of bad weather, involving drought and unpredictable downpour. However, in October 2022, the company was finally have the potential to begin selling its red sweetcorn seeds. As a consequence, several municipalities have started to grow red sweetcorn to revitalise their communities. “I wish Yamato Rouge will go on to lead to many people smiling ,” Ms Kaneko said.