Country

Griffith is where our head office is located. It is the centre of a large irrigation area known as the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA).

Swan Hill is an area in north western Victoria approximately 300km south west of Griffith, where irrigation water is supplied by the Murray River.

All these areas are classified as hot and semi-arid. The summers are hot with temperatures commonly in the high 30’s and the winters are mild, with cold nights (see climatic data for Griffith, Hillston and Swan Hill).

These three areas are ideally suited to the production of LMV free lettuce, short to medium day onions, cucurbits early carrots and winter brassicas, such as Tropical cauliflower.

At Griffith we also offer sophisticated tunnel house production used exclusively for lettuce at this time.

All seed produced in these three regions is processed at our Griffith cleaning plant, which has a range of sophisticated cleaning equipment. At this plant seed can also be treated in various ways, such as film coating, pelleting and encrusting.

At Griffith we also have our seed testing laboratory, which conforms to standards exceeding the minimum set down by ISTA.

The staff in these three locations are highly experienced and dedicated to the production of high quality seed, including both genetic and physical purity and high vigour/high germination.

Myrtleford is located in NE Victoria in the Ovens Valley, 280km from Melbourne.  It is a temperate climate with most rain falling in winter and mild temperatures through Spring and Summer. Reliable water supply for irrigation is sourced from the Ovens river and underground bores. The mild spring/summer climate makes the area ideal for intermediate onion seed production

Mount Gambier is located in the south eastern corner of South Australia and is approximately 20 km from the coast of the Southern Ocean.

Naracoorte is located 100 km directly north of Mount Gambier.

These two areas are in a location known as the Lower South East of South Australia. It is the most southern seed production location on mainland Australia, and can be described as a temperate area. Because we are based in the southern hemisphere, our temperatures become cooler as we move south.

This area is ideally suited for those crops which require a cool winter and warm summer (see climatic data for Naracoorte and Mount Gambier). In Mount Gambier winters are mild because of the coastal influence and summers mild to warm.

In Naracoorte where the coastal influence is not dominant the night time winter temperatures are cooler and the summers are a few degrees warmer. This makes a very unique production area.

The south east is best known for the production of carrot seed, both OP and F1, Chinese cabbage and medium day onions. Generally speaking this area is best suited for large field production.

We have seed cleaning facilities in Mt Gambier and our new facility in Naracoorte was purpose built in 2018. We are able to handle large volumes of seed in both these processing facilities where we range of cleaning and treating options. Seed cleaned and processed can be directly exported from these locations.

Tasmania is an island state with a large stretch of water separating it from the mainland by some 200km. Tasmania offers cool winters and mild summers and is ideally suited to the production of medium to late maturing cauliflowers and cabbages. Also the island is suited for the production of Swiss chard and spring sown brassicas, such as Pak Choi. In addition it is a developing area for the production of European hybrid carrot, as the climate is highly suitable and the island is totally free from Wild Carrot.

Cage productions for small multiplications are available upon request.

Tasmania is a very unique production area and because of its terrain offers a wide range of micro-climates which gives us a great diversity of production areas.

Essentially we produce in three main regions of Tasmania. They are the east coast (see climatic data for Swansea), the Cole River Valley (see climatic data for Hobart) and the northern central area (see climatic data for Cressy Research Station). These areas essentially offer dry summer conditions.

South Pacific Seeds has its base in Richmond, in the south, where seed can be dried and pre-cleaned before sending it to the mainland for final processing and exporting.

Our Crops