FIELD AND GROVE MAGAZINE
Profiling Southwest Florida’s Agribusiness Community

Vegetable seed distribution is vital to an industry that helps feed our nation, adds hundreds of millions of dollars to Florida's economy and sets our region of the state apart. The process is an arduous one because so much depends upon seed companies getting it right. 

After a vegetable variety is tapped for marketing by the company that bred it (i.e. Sakata or Seminis), the seeds are grown and cultivated outside the United States in several other countries around the world including China, Chile and the Netherlands. This is the most economical way to produce the seed, which helps keep costs down for the seed distributor and by extension, the vegetable farmer. 

Once harvested, the seeds are returned to the states to be "milled, cleaned up, treated and then packed into saleable units," explained Paul Sawyer, a seed consultant with Siegers Seed Company. "We (Siegers) then forecast and buy from these companies what we need to supply the end user, which is the grower." 

But before the seed is shipped to the distributor, it must be packaged one of two ways. The packaging method used is determined by whether the vegetables are grown from wet seeds (tomatoes, watermelons etc.) or dry seeds (beans, sweet corn). Once received in-house, the majority of the wet seed is then shipped to transplant houses where it’s planted and nurtured until the young individual plants the seed produces can be transplanted in prepared fields. 

Nothing is left to chance. Since the quality of seed used to 'put out a crop' is so critical to the success of southern Florida's vegetable growers, Siegers also conducts its own screening trials. A trial may utilize anywhere from "one-half to five acres depending on the comfort level of the farmer," Sawyer explained, "because production costs are so high for these farmers, they have to make the most of their valuable land." 

And Siegers helps them do just that by widely distributing seeds to growers that produce the area’s bread and butter vegetable crops including tomatoes, bell peppers, specialty peppers, squash, cucumbers, string beans, sweet corn and watermelons. 

Sawyer, who received a degree in Biology from the University of Maine, has been associated with Siegers since the company's move into our local marketplace in the mid 90's. Established in 1917, Siegers concentrated its efforts in other parts of the country until 1995 "when the company saw gaps in seed distribution in the southeast," Sawyer said. "Now, Siegers sells seed up and down the eastern seaboard." 

And Sieger's growth in our area is evident when one considers that the company's LaBelle office currently oversees sales and distribution in seven other states besides Florida: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee.  

Sawyer, who also serves as president of the Florida Watermelon Association, is unabashedly proud of his occupation and says he loves working in agriculture. "No two days are ever the same and I've met a lot of fascinating people," he remarked, before going on to say that many of his customers have become dear friends. Sawyer takes pride in being involved with an industry that "helps feed the world. I can't imagine doing anything else." 

But like many who are so closely tied to our area's agriculture, Sawyer says he laments the lack of knowledge most people have when it comes to how the food they eat is produced. "I have friends on Fort Myers Beach who have never been east of I-75. They have no idea what we grow out here."  

By Cindy Cutright

Cindy Cutright has spent the better part of the last 25 years engaged in marketing and advertising in Southwest Florida. And though her background is in print media, her embrace of the online publishing concept has been admirable to say the least.