 Emanuel "Manny" Shemin
Founding Director
Genesis Seeds
Israel
After
35 years in the horticultural industry (greenhouse and
nursery), I came into the seed industry in 1991.
Here
are some of the things that strike me when comparing
both industries:
-
both have the same seasonality, but product
perishability is much greater in horticulture;
-
greater diligence in trialing new products is
applied in horticulture;
-
the seed industry is a gentler industry and doesn't
generally have the harsh edge of horticulture;
-
seed companies, especially the larger ones, seem to
be better organized and structured than the usually
family-owned companies in horticulture;
-
seed companies are a little slower in acting,
reacting and changing;
-
high personel turnover often makes it difficult to
establish and maintain relationships in the seed
industry - this lack of stability may be a
reflection of insufficient strategic planning;
-
seed professionals appear more production-driven
than customer-driven, bringing to market what they
think the market needs and not spending enough time
observing and listening to consumers in the
supermarket.
A
few observations of a more general nature:
-
R&D spending in the seed industry appears to be higher than in
many other parts of agriculture;
-
empowerment is insufficient: for instance, while it's easy
to get a meeting with seed people to discuss new
business, the follow up is often slow and
inefficient;
-
European ownership of large areas of the industry
causes the North American market to be often
imperfectly understood;
-
the educational level is quite high in the seed
sector: individuals are better educated and have
better degrees than in many other sectors of
agriculture;
-
the seed industry seems to offer women greater
mobility and chance for advancement than the rest of
agriculture;
-
competition amongst seed companies is not as
cut-throat as in other industries, and the
competitive spirit not as developed.
In
day-to-day operation and management, I didn't find that the seed industry
offered radically different challenges than the
horticulture business, or was more complex.
Mr.
Shemin's career in horticulture spans over 50 years. The
founder of Shemin Nurseries in 1955, he pioneered
Horticultural Distribution, the first one-stop wholesale
distribution in the horticulture industry. In 1991, he
teamed up with Dr. Isaac Nir to start
Genesis Seeds,
an organic seed company. |
