Topic: Business in the Time of COVID
Description: We will look at how the pandemic has affected sales and operations, and talk about what wholesale and retail seed businesses are doing to respond to the unprecedented surge in seed sales.
Moderators: Amanda Shepard and Mike Lizotte
Attendance: 80+

1. Businesses are seeing unprecedented growth and sales earlier in the season than is typical. How are you keeping up with increased demand, and do you see your business being able to sustain the high level of demand throughout the season? 

Everyone agreed that demand for seeds started earlier than ever before. Said Rob Hart of Hart Seed Co.: “We’ve had requests for twice as much seed as this time last year, and they came earlier.” He noted that, because so much seed sold out, the company is less able to fulfill donation requests. 

Renee Shepherd reported that the demand started on January 1, earlier than ever before. Forecasting demand going forward is a problem.  Doug Rohrer, Rohrer Seeds, agreed that January orders were unprecedented. Jeanine Bogart, Syngenta Seed: “New gardeners tend to overbuy.” this may cause the surge to scale back in a year or two. Everyone agreed that the new gardeners are, for now, hanging around.

2. Seed shortages: Will they recur in 2021?

From the wholesale end, Patty Buskirk, Seeds By Design, is increasing forecasting for 2021 and 2022. Kevin Loe, Oregon Wholesale: “Production cannot be changed overnight. It takes 2-3 years.” Wholesale seed inventories are down from normal.

Suggestions: Have customers choose substitutions. Make suggestions.

Mary Gomane, Condor Seed: “Book new crops early! Last year’s organic crops were sold before they were even out of the ground.”

Heather Kibble, Sakata Seed: Be sure to have 2nd and 3rd choices picked out. New gardeners are more inclined to be flexible.” Chelsey Lenczyk, Bejo Seeds, agreed and noted that listing varieties in “boxes” by type (example: determinate plum tomatoes) would help steer customers to substitutions.

Reasons for shortages persist – new customers, and supply chain problems. Justin Davis, Sakata Seed, stated that government restrictions and testing requirements are causing unforeseen backups.

What to do: Educate! 

Renee Shepherd: “Seed is produced all over the world. Shipping backups and lab backups contribute to the ‘seed shortages.’” Patty Buskirk urged seed sellers to communicate the value of seed. Diane Blazek, NGB, pointed to NGB’s recent blog post about seed buying and noted that NGB materials can be shared. Tracy Lee, Sakata Seed, suggested that everyone put a positive spin on the “we are turning off orders” messages on websites by linking the bad news to useful information.

Everyone agreed. Keep things positive! People are turning to gardening as a reprieve from the stress of COVID and political instability. This is a good thing! Mike Lizotte: “We want to turn new customers into gardeners for life.”

Andy LaVigne, ASTA, offered to help spread information about seed matters, and said he was working to set up a virtual tour for garden writers and food writers.

John Wahlert, wholesaler, Wild West Seeds, has noticed a lot of new orders that he suspects are people trying to cash in on the situation by buying wholesale and selling online. “They are not seedsmen,” he noted.

3. Marketing and Promotions: Are you running sales or promotions? Spending money on marketing? Why or why not?

No discussion on this, though Dave Armstrong, Sakata, noted that this year we’ll see the first ever gardening ad for the Super Bowl.

4. Back orders and Delays: What types of delays are you experiencing? Are you turning off new orders on your website until you are able to fill backorders?

Chelsey Lenczyk, Bejo, commented on run-on orders, where customers tie up the sales person for an extended period. This is backing things up on the wholesale end.

Renee Shepherd: Most direct-to-consumer seed companies are experiencing backups of 1-2 weeks. Robb Baumann, Mountain Valley Seed, said prep work paid off, and they are ok for now.

Customers are generally understanding about delays.

5. What measures are you taking to keep new customers around? 

Mike L., American Meadows, emphasized that customer relations comes first! Return customers are brand ambassadors; new customers are, potentially, life-long gardeners.

Wholesale seed operations are concentrating on taking care of steady customers rather than courting new business.

How to keep new customers? Number 1: Educate on how to garden. A gardener’s first experience needs to be positive! HGSA’s mission, promoting gardening from seed, is important.