Seed Business

Seed Business Convention is the Australian seed industry’s three-day convention held in late August.

Seed Business 2025

Seed Business 2025: It’s a wrap!

Nearly 300 delegates from across Australia and New Zealand gathered in Christchurch for Seed Business 2025 – the inaugural joint convention hosted by ASF and Seed and Grain New Zealand (SGNZ). Held over four packed days, the event delivered expert panels, keynote speakers, field tours and plenty of valuable networking.

ASF President Tim March summed it up perfectly:

Seed Business 2025 showed just how much we can achieve by coming together as two industries. The energy, the openness, and the willingness to share ideas made it clear that Australia and New Zealand’s seed sectors have a strong future working side by side.

Celebrating Industry Excellence

The Gala Dinner at Christchurch Town Hall was a chance to celebrate the achievements of our members. Congratulations to our 2025 award winners:

Best Booth: GTE Technology

ASF Women in Seed Award: Marcia Vistisen

ASF Emerging Leader Award: Aline Passos

ASF President’s Award: Steve Brill

ASF also wish to recognise John McKenzie, who was awarded Life Membership by SGNZ in honour of his service to the seed industry

A special thank you to our Premium Sponsor, Anysort, for supporting a truly memorable evening.

What We Took Away

From the friendly competition of the Seed Business Challenge to forums on innovation, regulation, and gene technology, the week sparked big ideas and meaningful conversations.

Whether it was the Young Radicles Breakfast or getting out into the field across the Canterbury Plains, delegates walked away with stronger relationships, fresh insights, and a renewed sense of collaboration.

Seed Business 2025 wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our sponsors. A special thanks to our premium Sponsor, Anysort.

Lastly: Thank You!

To everyone who attended, spoke, exhibited, supported, and helped bring this event to life – thank you. Seed Business 2025 was just the beginning, and we can’t wait to see what we’ll grow together next!

Click here for a full wrap up of Seed Business 2025

 

Seed Business Convention 2024

And that’s a wrap! A huge thank you to everyone who attended Seed Business 2024 and made it what it was – our biggest Seed Business ever! With more than 170 attendees from all ends of Australia, we had a great time bringing together the diverse Australian seed industry at the beautiful Sunshine Coast.

This year, alongside our prestigious President’s Award, we introduced three new awards to celebrate others within our industry. A huge congratulations to the following: President’s Award: Bill Brown, Mainfreight; Emerging Leader Award: Ben Farmer, Wilkei Seeds; Women in Seed Award: Melissa Gooseman, DLF Seeds; Great Exhibitor Pitch: Australian Seed Labs.

We also celebrated our own team member, Alysha Lockley, for 15 years of service to the ASF, recognised recent Seed Industry Professional Program graduates, and saw Mark Schmidt take out this year’s Seed Business Challenge. Congratulations to all award winners for their dedication and contributions.

At our AGM, we elected the ASF Board, President Tim March of Rijk Zwaan, Vice Presidents Dale Skepper of RAGT and Ken Cunliffe of AgEtal as well as Craig Myall of Synergy Seeds as Director. Rowena Petrie has finished her term as President and moves to the role of Immediate Past President, replacing Tim Pepper who officially finished his role on the ASF Board. We are grateful to Rowena for her years as President, especially her obvious passion and heart for the industry.

Our regional office bearers were also elected. Brent Scott, DLF Seeds, will Chair the Northern region, and Anthony Quilter, DLF Seeds, will Chair the Southern region. They join re-elected Mick Ahearn (Chair, South-Eastern), James Whiteley (Chair, Eastern) and Glen Liebold (Chair, Western).

Seed Business kicked off with an inspiring Leadership Day with an AI workshop from Julian Moore. This workshop opened our eyes to fast developing AI technology, and how we can utilise it in better in the seed industry. We also heard fantastic presentations on topics including, sustainability – including the latest on the bagMUSTER program, workforce, blockchain, pollination and plant breeding innovation.

We had a full room for our Women in Seed Lunch, with guest speaker Caitlin Crowley. Caitlin spoke about the role that women are playing in shaping regional Australia. It was great to see so many women in the room sharing their stories and experiences from our industry.

None of this would have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors. Thank you to our Major Sponsor, DLF Seeds.