Our Story

Luisetti Seeds is a Family owned and operated company located in Rangiora and Ashburton, on the Canterbury plains of the South Island of New Zealand. Luisetti Seeds produces seed in New Zealand for its local customers and exports New Zealand seed around the world.

We specialise in Seed Multiplication for reproduction and re-export to international companies in the Northern Hemisphere. The fertile Canterbury Plains of New Zealand are world-renowned for some of the most consistent and highest quality seed production in the world.

25 years ago, Luisetti Seeds and Crop and Food Research formed a joint venture to breed and market milling wheats, feed wheats and feed barleys for the New Zealand market. Since then, our partnership has continued to flourish. We are proud to say that the Luisetti Seeds/Plant & Food Research cereal breeding programme is the largest cereal breeding operation in New Zealand. Luisetti Seeds is head licensee for eight New Zealand milling wheat cultivars with an established market share of 75%.

In 2016 we announced that both Plant & Food Research and Luisetti Seeds deliberately decided to attempt to breed resistance to the three biggest yield robbers of the New Zealand cereal crop: scald, BYDV and Septoria Tritici Blotch. We are making excellent progress. Every year our efforts produce higher yielding and more resistant cultivars, including our most recent releases: Griffin Premium Milling Wheat, Catherine Milling Wheat, and CRBA148 Feed Barley.

Luisetti Seeds partners with GRASSLANZ to breed and deliver a diverse portfolio of high-quality crop and pasture seeds to New Zealand’s agricultural industry. Our Quality Assurance programme exceeds the requirements of the national varietal certification system; meaning only premium seed, with high health, purity, germination, and overall reliability, reaches the market. The cultivars we have grown through their breeding include white clover, sub clover, persian clover, plantain, lucerne, and cocksfoot.

In addition to marketing some of New Zealand’s leading pea cultivars, Luisetti Seeds exclusively markets varieties for two international pea breeders. We are also involved with research and development with a vegetable processing company, investigating the application of new process pea cultivars.

We have an extensive contract grower base in Canterbury. Our field representatives contract and grow a wide range of grain and seed, including process and field peas, milling wheat, radish, ryegrass, barley, and specialist clover crops.

Luisetti Seeds also offer Seed Dressing services. We enjoy a reputation of quality dressing with a minimum of product loss. Luisetti Seeds takes pride in our state-of-the-art seed-cleaning machinery and grain-handling equipment. Our seed cleaning equipment is second to none in the New Zealand industry.