Understanding tariff impacts on the organic seed industry through the experience of High Mowing Seeds.
By Kendra Morrison
High Mowing Organic Seeds, a leading supplier of organic seed varieties in North America, has built a reputation for transparency and technical insight in the industry. The company’s recent Tariffs & Pricing blog post, which detailed the practical effects of tariffs on seed costs and sourcing decisions, prompted a closer look at how trade policy is reshaping the U.S. organic seed market. Andrea Tursini, CEO, provided a detailed perspective on the challenges faced by growers and seed suppliers alike.
While Tursini noted that the company has not experienced significant shortages in organic seed varieties, she emphasized that tariffs have introduced new complexity to pricing. “We had a few surprises with things that we were expecting to have a 15% tariff rate show up with a 25% tariff rate,” she said, highlighting the difficulty of anticipating costs when the country of origin affects the tariff applied. “It has made it really difficult to navigate pricing and margins and figure out how to weather some of those costs,” Tursini explained.
Often, by the time unexpected costs are realized, the seed is already en route to warehouses, and adjustments to pricing are limited. “In other cases, we weren’t able to [adjust pricing]. So it is just a hit to our margin,” she explained. While availability has remained largely stable, she cautioned that continued tariffs could eventually make certain varieties economically unfeasible, particularly those sourced from higher-tariff regions like Moldova.
Timing has compounded these challenges becausethe seed industry operates on long planning cycles, with orders often placed months in advance. “We had placed our purchase orders for our 2026 seed by April in many cases, well before this tariff situation settled out,” Tursini explained. She described the industry as a “slow-moving beast” with crops sometimes requiring more than one season to reach maturity, meaning mid-cycle policy changes can disrupt both production and pricing decisions. “The world changed pretty dramatically in that time period this time around. And it was definitely challenging to make strategic decisions, particularly around pricing,” she added.
Tursini also highlighted why the industry must remain global, pointing out that climate and geography play a crucial role in seed quality. “While we could potentially grow lettuce seed, in Vermont, for example, it’s not going to result in high-quality seed. So there are specific pockets of the world that are ideal for different types of crops,” she elaborated. Attempting to shift all production to the United States is “a mighty tall order” because optimal growing conditions cannot be replicated everywhere. She reinforced this point, “And in order to reliably grow the crops that we need, we need to have seed that is of sufficient quality, and that’s the piece that really makes it region specific. You can certainly grow brassicas in lots of different places, but if you want good quality seed, you have to find the right location,” Tursini said.
These climate-specific constraints extend beyond quality to the logistics of production itself. “We have crops in the ground sometimes for more than one season, and it takes time to find new places to grow things. And they’re highly climate-specific. So it’s not like we could choose to grow a seed crop with any farmer in the US. There are very specific climate requirements,” she informed. These realities make reshoring production complex, costly, and time-consuming, meaning tariffs on imported seed are felt more acutely in U.S. markets.
Smaller, specialized organic seed supply chains are particularly sensitive to these pressures. While current availability has not shifted dramatically, the industry remains vigilant about potential long-term impacts on genetic diversity if tariffs persist or expand.
Looking ahead, Tursini emphasized that trade and agricultural policy changes could support organic seed access. Eliminating tariffs would ease cost pressures, while tightening organic seed regulations could create stronger economic incentives for domestic production. “We really need to tighten up our organic seed regulations.
There are too many loopholes, and the way that the regulations are written means there’s not a lot of economic incentive for seed companies to invest in organic seed,” she expressed. She pointed to Europe’s crop-by-crop organic regulations as a potential model that could strengthen the U.S. organic seed sector and support continued market viability.
For companies like High Mowing Seeds, the challenge lies in balancing quality, cost, and supply reliability amid unpredictable global trade conditions. As Tursini summarized, “It is a global industry, and it’ll probably continue to be,” underscoring the ongoing interplay of international collaboration, climate-specific production, and policy sensitivity in sustaining U.S. organic seed markets.
Thank you to High Mowing and Andrea Tursini for the interview, insight, and dedication to quality and transparency. You can read their original blog post at: https://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/tariffs-pricing/
Sources: High Mowing Seeds, “Tariffs & Pricing,” Company Blog Post, 2025; U.S. International Trade Commission, Harmonized Tariff Schedule and Trade Data, 2025.
