At the request of the Southern Alberta Native Seed Collaborative, Enviro Q&A Services and Wild Rose Consulting Inc. conducted a survey of Growers/Producers, Wild Harvesters, Distributors, and End Users and Regulators to identify the current state of the sector and opportunities to improve the native species seed market. The authors also produced a high-level review of the literature to provide a sense of the native seed market needs, barriers, opportunities and organizations.
There was clear evidence among the survey participants that the native species seed industry in Alberta is alive and vibrant, and that there is a strong desire to move the market forwards to enable better ecological outcomes for revegetation projects. In addition, there are many other market participants who did not responded to the survey, suggesting an even larger market than demonstrated here and therefore a larger group of potential individuals and companies SANSC could engage with and support.
Consistent with the literature and other surveys, participants identified barriers to efficient functioning of the industry and provided suggestions on ways to reduce or remove these barriers, which provide opportunities for SANSC to support the industry. Key barriers include:
- Cyclical nature of supply and demand.
- Lack of awareness or capability of end users to predict seed needs in advance (i.e., greater than one year lead time).
- Availability of species and volumes to meet the needs of End Users and Regulators.
- Need to go to multiple seed providers and/or go outside Alberta to meet seed needs.
SANSC has an opportunity to show leadership in this field by: (1) helping market participants become more knowledgeable, (2) developing tools to make the market more efficient, and (3) transform the market.
SANSC can undertake, lead or facilitate projects in the short-term (i.e., Year 1) and medium-term (i.e., Years 2 and 3) to establish its credentials as an enabling organization and to develop some initial products that demonstrate to users and funders that it can make valuable contributions to the sector and be seen as the go-to place for native species seed information for grasslands regions.
SANSC can then begin to organize, lead, or facilitate longer-term projects that will make major changes that can transform the industry. There are examples of such changes in the literature that can serve as templates for the projects.
Recommendations for short-, medium- and long-term projects are offered following the presentation of the complete survey results.