Ensuring the long term viability of the New Zealand seed industry

Abstract

New Zealand‟s seed industry occupies around 50,000 ha and produced around 130,000 tonnes seed in both 2010 and 2011. Most of this production is based in Canterbury. Ryegrasses and peas (at around 30,000 tonnes each) are the largest seed crops by volume, but cereals, forage brassicas, oilseeds, forage legumes and vegetable seeds are also important. The upstream impacts of the seed industry in 2011 were estimated at $228M in direct sales, a total impact of $610M, and a contribution to New Zealand‟s GDP of $271M. Downstream impacts for New Zealand‟s pasture improvement delivered via New Zealand produced seeds are estimated to contribute $3.2B to GDP annually. The seed industry is vitally important to New Zealand‟s land-based industries and currently vibrant, but there are various threats to its long term viability. These include competition for land use, high production costs, reducing options for the use of chemicals and fertilisers, climate change, and loss of industry knowledge and infrastructure. The loss of the seed industry would remove around $1.0B from the “seeds” contribution (direct and indirect) to the New Zealand economy, threaten the profitability/viability of New Zealand‟s pastoral production industries, remove the present grass endophyte capability, and stop the $150M annual seed export industry as well as other downstream impacts. A bright and productive future for the seed industry will therefore require increased profitability using sustainable production practices, seed quality improvement, strategies to mitigate the effects of a number of environmental changes and an expansion of seed industry knowledge. Overcoming present technical constraints will require both fundamental and applied research. The New Zealand Seed Alliance has been established to provide a mechanism for increasing investment in seed research and development, to provide increasing opportunities for the industry to meet present and future market demands, and to enhance co-operation among the public and private sectors of the New Zealand seed industry.