Siegers Seed Company of Holland, Michigan is happy to announce the availability of the newest in super high quality sweet corn varieties, Mirai™ (pronounced “me-rye”), as a commercial variety for the
2002 growing season. In markets where taste is critical, Mirai™ earns a premium price and dramatically increases repeat sales. Master growers can call Siegers’ main office or contact their local seed representative to order.

When Mirai was introduced in Japan five years ago, it was so novel that the national media began to follow the story, and the brand has become so popular it is making obsolete other types and other colors. In 2001, Mirai™ captured about 20% of the total Japanese market. This is phenomenal since
the market has traditionally been bi-color and the current Mirai™ variety is yellow. Mirai™ tastes that good!

Mirai™ has been available on an extremely limited basis for the last two years in the United States, while Siegers was trialing it and testing its marketability. It has been a phenomenal success. Retailers easily sold it for up to double the price of ordinary sweet corn, and couldn’t pick it fast enough to keep up with the demand. The food service industry is also catching on to the extraordinary quality of Mirai™ — especially after the Illinois state governor sampled an ear of Mirai™ at Seasons Restaurant and
began raving about it.

Growing Mirai™ is not for everyone! Mirai™ requires careful seed bed preparation, warm soil, adequate moisture, and careful placement. Machine harvesting is also not recommended for Mirai™ — the kernels are extremely deep, tender, and unbelieveably tasty! Mirai™ tolerates common diseases
under normal conditions, and when populations are good, growers report excellent yield. Husk cover and appearance is excellent. Tip fill is proving superb, and the ears are beautiful.

But the fact that Mirai™ is a best-seller with consumers has made it a favored variety with the growers who gave it the extra attention. When marketed as Mirai™, customers come back asking for Mirai™, and expect to pay more for it than for ordinary sweet corn.

“At our roadside stand, sweet corn sales are up 100 crates a day since our customers discovered Mirai™ taste!” said Randy Morse, of Morse Farms in Southbridge, Mass. “Customer reaction is unbelievable! After the newspaper wrote about Mirai™, our parking lot started filling during the week like it does on Saturdays.”

“We doubled the retail price of Mirai™ right from the start,” said Shirley Ahrens of Scates Farm Stand in Shawneetown, Ill. “We gave a free ear of Mirai™ to every customer buying regular corn — now 60% of our volume is Mirai™!”

Dave MacKenzie, owner of Centest — the breeder of Mirai™ — recommends setting a strong price for Mirai™. “Sellers often mention they don’t get questioned about price once customers have tried Mirai™,” he says. MacKenzie also says that even if your market is strictly bi-color or white, Mirai’s taste and quality will convert even the most adament customer. However, Centest is currently working on developing a bi-color, white and a new shipper-class Mirai™ — promising the same breakthrough taste with new performance and appeal.

Siegers Seed Company is a distributor of a full line of high quality vegetable seeds, specially treated for commercial growers. Founded in the early 1900’s, Siegers Seed Company is dedicated to providing superior product, backed by the highest levels of customer support available in the industry today.