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

Seed Business Convention 2025

For the first time ever, Seed & Grain New Zealand and the Australian Seed Federation are joining forces for Seed Business 2025 in Christchurch, New Zealand!

Registrations have now closed. We can’t wait to see you there.

Program

Click here to view the SB25 Program online.

Contact us

For questions or additional information, please contact Josh, josh@ausseed.org.au, or Sharon, sharon.dawe@seedindustrynz.co.nz.

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.