About the Company
A Canadian company called The Prairie Garden Seeds is a seed company located in western Canada in Humboldt, Saskatchewan (Ternier, 2014). The Prairie Garden Seeds is a family owned and operated Seed Company. Husband and wife Jim and Marie-Louise Ternier started this operation back in 1986. Jim and Marie-Louise Ternier have three kids David, Daniel and Rachelle. Jim’s sister Judy lives and works on the family farm as well. Each family member has an important role to keep the operation going. Gardening in the prairies has been apart of this family’s life for a long time. Jim’s daughter Rachelle took the strongest interest in this family operation since a very young age. She has always been there helping garden; if it was from collecting and saving seeds or to going to Seedy Saturdays with her dad; Rachelle always showed an interest. Today she is helping take over the family operation along side her parents (Ternier, 2014). This seed company is completely independent and does everything themselves. They start with the seeds planting and managing them to harvesting them when they are ready. This company doesn’t stop there though they harvest and package all the seeds themselves as well. They are a very family oriented and run company (Ternier, 2014).
Seeds for Nepal
Since Nepal is a very poor and uneducated country that highly depends on fruits and vegetables for survival it is important to send over vine crops (Zuchora-Walske, 2008). Vine Crops can help the people of Nepal in many ways; this will allow for them to grow many more fruits and vegetables in places where they haven’t been able to grow anything before. Since this product isn’t overly expensive the farmers of Nepal could buy their own seeds or buy a bunch between 2-3 farmers; this would allow them to split up the seeds so they can have a little bit of each variety.
Seed Production and Costs
The Prairie Garden Seeds grow 80% of the seeds they distribute. A commercial farm grows the remaining 20% of the seeds on a contract (Ternier, 2014). These seeds that are grown on the commercial farm are labeled specially with a (C) after the variety. Labeling them this way allows customers to be aware of who grew the seeds. The most important and interesting part is that the Prairie Garden Seeds farm and garden without the use of agricultural chemicals or the use of synthetic fertilizers. All of their seeds are open pollinated, untreated and not genetically engineered (Ternier, 2014). The Prairie Garden Seeds is a very busy little company. At peak season it takes up to 6 weeks to order seeds and get the order processed. This little company has 44 different varieties of the vine crops and many more other seeds. Each package contains a range of 24-50 seeds per package depending on what variety you buy. Prairie Garden Seeds stands behind their name because you will receive a full discount if you are unhappy with the seed you bought (Ternier, Personal Communication September-November 2014).
Producing these seeds to sell requires a lot of time and effort. This family plants and maintains it all by themselves with a few hired hands. With having little cost and less hired people they can sell their seeds for less money than competitors because their input costs are a lot lower.
Benefits
Sending this product overseas to a developing country is very beneficial to Canada. This opportunity to trade with developing countries will allow Canada to expand its trading market. They will be able to make new ties with countries and help each other out. This will help increase the Canadian economy by importing new money and creating more jobs. With having more stable jobs in Canada will help improve peoples lives so they can spend more money in our country to keep it running instead of buying cheaper imported products. Selling these seeds to Nepal would help improve Canada because it would support this family company and will help get their name out on the market and help make this company grow. With this it helps build competition and competitiveness between companies. This competition and competiveness forces companies to produce even better products than before.
Challenges
All of the Prairie Garden Seeds are grown on the natural soils of western Canada. This only allows the company to grow their seeds when conditions are good. A challenge is if this company expands it will be harder to keep up with the demand. The weather can make or break this family company if things don’t go right with planting, harvesting or the time in between. Growing in outdoor conditions can be troublesome because for open pollinations you need the perfect temperature and weather for it to be successful (Zamir, 1982).
The range in prices depends on what kind of seeds farmers purchase. Below is a chart that compares Prairie Garden Seeds with a tough competitor in Canada. The seeds are produced a little differently and the competitor isn’t a family run operation but has headquarters in Canada and the United States.
Prairie Garden Seeds Competitor in Canada
Tomatoes $3.00/ pkg (25 seeds) Tomatoes $15.10/ pkg (25 seeds)
Squash $3.00/ pkg (25 seeds) Squash $5.05/ pkg (25 seeds)
Peas $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Peas $3.70/ package (25 seeds)
Cucumber $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Cucumber $3.95/ package (25 seeds)
Strawberry $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Strawberry $7.15/ package (25 seeds)
Note: All prices are in US dollars. (25 seeds – 50 grams) (Ternier, 2014) , (Anonymous 5, 2014).
For Nepalese people to buy in their own continent of Asia it would save them on transportation costs. Their seed would still cost a considerable amount more than the Canadian seed. The seed produced by a company in China does not have near the selection as the Canadian company. The Canadian company is still very competitive on the market across the globe.
Prairie Garden Seeds Competitor in China
Peas $3.00 / (50 grams) Peas $3.20 / (28 grams)
Cucumber $3.00 / (50 grams) Cucumber $32.00 / (28 grams)
Tomatoes $3.00 / (50 grams) Tomatoes $15.00 / (28 grams)
Note: All prices are in US dollars. (Anonymous 3. 2013), (Ternier, 2014)
References:
Anonymous 3. (2013), Oriental Vegetable Seeds Retrieved from
http://evergreenseeds.stores.yahoo.net/index.html
Anonymous 5. (2014) Stokes Seeds. Retrieved from http://www.stokeseeds.com/home.aspx
Ternier Rachelle, T. J. (2014). Prairie garden seeds: About us. Retrieved october 7th, 2014, from http://www.prseeds.ca
Zuchora-Walske, C (2008). Nepal in Pictures. Denver: Twenty-First Century Books.
A Canadian company called The Prairie Garden Seeds is a seed company located in western Canada in Humboldt, Saskatchewan (Ternier, 2014). The Prairie Garden Seeds is a family owned and operated Seed Company. Husband and wife Jim and Marie-Louise Ternier started this operation back in 1986. Jim and Marie-Louise Ternier have three kids David, Daniel and Rachelle. Jim’s sister Judy lives and works on the family farm as well. Each family member has an important role to keep the operation going. Gardening in the prairies has been apart of this family’s life for a long time. Jim’s daughter Rachelle took the strongest interest in this family operation since a very young age. She has always been there helping garden; if it was from collecting and saving seeds or to going to Seedy Saturdays with her dad; Rachelle always showed an interest. Today she is helping take over the family operation along side her parents (Ternier, 2014). This seed company is completely independent and does everything themselves. They start with the seeds planting and managing them to harvesting them when they are ready. This company doesn’t stop there though they harvest and package all the seeds themselves as well. They are a very family oriented and run company (Ternier, 2014).
Seeds for Nepal
Since Nepal is a very poor and uneducated country that highly depends on fruits and vegetables for survival it is important to send over vine crops (Zuchora-Walske, 2008). Vine Crops can help the people of Nepal in many ways; this will allow for them to grow many more fruits and vegetables in places where they haven’t been able to grow anything before. Since this product isn’t overly expensive the farmers of Nepal could buy their own seeds or buy a bunch between 2-3 farmers; this would allow them to split up the seeds so they can have a little bit of each variety.
Seed Production and Costs
The Prairie Garden Seeds grow 80% of the seeds they distribute. A commercial farm grows the remaining 20% of the seeds on a contract (Ternier, 2014). These seeds that are grown on the commercial farm are labeled specially with a (C) after the variety. Labeling them this way allows customers to be aware of who grew the seeds. The most important and interesting part is that the Prairie Garden Seeds farm and garden without the use of agricultural chemicals or the use of synthetic fertilizers. All of their seeds are open pollinated, untreated and not genetically engineered (Ternier, 2014). The Prairie Garden Seeds is a very busy little company. At peak season it takes up to 6 weeks to order seeds and get the order processed. This little company has 44 different varieties of the vine crops and many more other seeds. Each package contains a range of 24-50 seeds per package depending on what variety you buy. Prairie Garden Seeds stands behind their name because you will receive a full discount if you are unhappy with the seed you bought (Ternier, Personal Communication September-November 2014).
Producing these seeds to sell requires a lot of time and effort. This family plants and maintains it all by themselves with a few hired hands. With having little cost and less hired people they can sell their seeds for less money than competitors because their input costs are a lot lower.
Benefits
Sending this product overseas to a developing country is very beneficial to Canada. This opportunity to trade with developing countries will allow Canada to expand its trading market. They will be able to make new ties with countries and help each other out. This will help increase the Canadian economy by importing new money and creating more jobs. With having more stable jobs in Canada will help improve peoples lives so they can spend more money in our country to keep it running instead of buying cheaper imported products. Selling these seeds to Nepal would help improve Canada because it would support this family company and will help get their name out on the market and help make this company grow. With this it helps build competition and competitiveness between companies. This competition and competiveness forces companies to produce even better products than before.
Challenges
All of the Prairie Garden Seeds are grown on the natural soils of western Canada. This only allows the company to grow their seeds when conditions are good. A challenge is if this company expands it will be harder to keep up with the demand. The weather can make or break this family company if things don’t go right with planting, harvesting or the time in between. Growing in outdoor conditions can be troublesome because for open pollinations you need the perfect temperature and weather for it to be successful (Zamir, 1982).
The range in prices depends on what kind of seeds farmers purchase. Below is a chart that compares Prairie Garden Seeds with a tough competitor in Canada. The seeds are produced a little differently and the competitor isn’t a family run operation but has headquarters in Canada and the United States.
Prairie Garden Seeds Competitor in Canada
Tomatoes $3.00/ pkg (25 seeds) Tomatoes $15.10/ pkg (25 seeds)
Squash $3.00/ pkg (25 seeds) Squash $5.05/ pkg (25 seeds)
Peas $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Peas $3.70/ package (25 seeds)
Cucumber $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Cucumber $3.95/ package (25 seeds)
Strawberry $3.00/ package (25 seeds) Strawberry $7.15/ package (25 seeds)
Note: All prices are in US dollars. (25 seeds – 50 grams) (Ternier, 2014) , (Anonymous 5, 2014).
For Nepalese people to buy in their own continent of Asia it would save them on transportation costs. Their seed would still cost a considerable amount more than the Canadian seed. The seed produced by a company in China does not have near the selection as the Canadian company. The Canadian company is still very competitive on the market across the globe.
Prairie Garden Seeds Competitor in China
Peas $3.00 / (50 grams) Peas $3.20 / (28 grams)
Cucumber $3.00 / (50 grams) Cucumber $32.00 / (28 grams)
Tomatoes $3.00 / (50 grams) Tomatoes $15.00 / (28 grams)
Note: All prices are in US dollars. (Anonymous 3. 2013), (Ternier, 2014)
References:
Anonymous 3. (2013), Oriental Vegetable Seeds Retrieved from
http://evergreenseeds.stores.yahoo.net/index.html
Anonymous 5. (2014) Stokes Seeds. Retrieved from http://www.stokeseeds.com/home.aspx
Ternier Rachelle, T. J. (2014). Prairie garden seeds: About us. Retrieved october 7th, 2014, from http://www.prseeds.ca
Zuchora-Walske, C (2008). Nepal in Pictures. Denver: Twenty-First Century Books.