NAHA - Visitors to Uruma Marche, a local produce market in Uruma City, can now use artificial intelligence to get instant cooking ideas for Okinawan ingredients.
The initiative, launched on November 4th in collaboration with a local company, aims to promote local consumption by making it easier for people to cook with regional produce.
Using a dedicated app, customers scan a QR code displayed beside fresh fruits and vegetables, input the number of servings and flavor preferences, and receive AI-generated recipes along with ingredient quantities. The system even provides suggestions for rare fruits not commonly found elsewhere.
When a visitor from outside Okinawa scanned the QR code for an atemoya fruit, the AI instantly proposed “Tropical Chicken Curry with Atemoya,” describing it as a southern-style curry where the fruit’s sweetness harmonizes with spices. The visitor reacted with amazement, calling it “very convenient.”
Toppan Digital’s Hideaki Matsumura said the system was developed to respond to consumers’ curiosity about discovering new ways to use familiar ingredients. Uruma Marche’s Jun Osuga added that the project supports the city’s goal of promoting local production for local consumption.
The demonstration experiment will run from November 4th to 6th, with Uruma Marche aiming for full-scale implementation in fiscal 2026.
