Heirloom corn makes a comeback in Mexico

Ixtenco, Mexico — On the slopes of the Malinche volcano, Juan Vargas starts the dawn routine he's had since childhood, carefully checking stalks of colorful native corn. For years, Vargas worried that these heirloom varieties — running from deep red to pale pink, from golden yellow to dark blue — passed down from his parents and grandparents would disappear. White corn long ago came to dominate the market and became the foundation of Mexicans' diet.

But now, the heirloom corn Vargas grows is in vogue. It accounts for 20 of the 50 acres on his farm in Ixtenco, in the central state of Tlaxcala. Vargas, 53, remembers just one acre reserved for it 2010, when demand was virtually zero and prices low. Fueled largely by foreign demand, the corn in its rainbow of colors has become more profitable for him than the white variety.

Vargas is among farmers in Mexico who've been holding on to heirloom strains for generations, against a flood of industrially produced white corn. They're finding a niche but increasing market among consumers seeking organic produce from smallscale growers and chefs worldwide who want to elevate or simply provide an authentic take on tortillas, tostadas and other corn-based pillars of Mexican food.

Corn is the most fundamental ingredient of Mexican cuisine, and it's never far from the national conversation. Amid President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's move to ban the importation of genetically modified corn and his imposition of a 50% tariff on imported white corn, some scientists, chefs and others are advocating for the value of the old varieties in an increasingly drought-stricken world.

Heirloom varieties make up far less than 1% of total domestic corn production in Mexico. But for the first time in years, Vargas and others are hopeful about the crop. Some in the academic and public sectors hope to increase its production.

Vargas' heirloom corn sells for around $1.17 per kilogram abroad, more than three times the price for his white. If demand keeps growing, he'll plant more. He boasts about his colorful “little corn” that travels the globe.

“People abroad validated us,” he said.

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In Brooklyn, Mexican chef Zack Wangeman and his wife, Diana, have been running their tortilla shop and restaurant, Sobre Masa, since 2021. Their dishes and corn masa, which they sell to other New York restaurants, are made with heirloom Mexican corn from small farms.

Wangeman, 31, believes tortillas made from that corn have gained a foothold because for many they evoke a “country flavor ... that taste of toasted corn” that is uniquely Mexican.

“When you use hybrid corn, genetically modified corn or whatever other option there is, it doesn't give you that nostalgic flavor,” said Wangeman, who was born in the southern state of Oaxaca.

He was drawn to the corn by a chef friend who returned from a food fair raving about it. Wangeman got in touch with Tamoa, a company that since 2016 has promoted the heirloom corn grown by about 100 families in central and southern Mexico to foreign markets.