La Tortilleria, a Melbourne-based Mexican food company, has harvested a commercial crop of blue corn in Victoria to make traditional tortillas, ABC News Australia reported on Nov. 3. The ABC said it is the first time blue corn has been grown commercially in Australia, and that the harvest followed six years of research and development.

"As far as we can tell … we are the first ones to develop a crop that we can use for tortilla-making outside of Mexico," co-founder Gerardo Lopez told the ABC. He said he wanted to recreate "those blue corn tortillas that you find in the small towns in Mexico and the villages."

With a CSIRO funding grant and help from researchers at Federation University, the company worked through Australia's quarantine and biosecurity rules, the ABC reported. Lopez said about 10 of the imported seeds were grown into plants, which produced only 20 seeds to start from. Early trials in Victoria gave small yields, but the crop harvested in March showed promise. Plant breeder Gururaj Kadkol, who joined the project in 2023, helped develop a variety suited to Australian conditions and told the ABC it yields about six to seven tonnes per hectare, a figure he said needs to go higher.

The corn's color comes from anthocyanins, the same antioxidant pigments found in blueberries, and Lopez described the tortillas as "nutty and earthy," the ABC reported. The next step, Lopez said, is nutritional testing: "Our aim is to break into the health food market, but also export."

Companies La Tortilleria

Read the release / full story at ABC News Australia