OSAKA -- Suntory Ltd.'s research institute hopes to create a blue rose in the next few years, according to officials.
The institute, which in June succeeded in developing a blue carnation through genetic recombination, is currently studying ways to create a blue rose.
The company has already marketed blue carnations.
Because roses and carnations do not contain pigments to make the color blue, the researchers are trying to transplant pigments of blue petunia to roses and carnations.
Suntory estimates that the size of the global rose market to be 260 billion yen annually. If the firm can sell blue roses, it will be able to capture nearly 20 percent of the global market, earning 50 billion yen in the process, the officials said.
The institute is engaged in a range of experiments, including changing the lengths of genes to be transplanted into roses.
"If we continue experimenting in different conditions, we will be able to succeed in developing blue roses," said Takaaki Kusumi, a researcher at the institute.
Suntory is not the only party studying the possibility of blue roses. Aomori Prefecture has launched a similar research project.