Salute to Idaho Agriculture: Local company providing seeds around the globe

KIMBERLY, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —With growing season fast approaching, to start production you need seeds.

“It all begins with the seed.”

Kimberly International seeds has been in the magic valley since 1950. They produce more than 80 varieties of garden beans and peas that ship around the globe.

Brad smith, general manager, explains the process from the field to their warehouse.

“See how much we need to produce, and our customers tell us how much they want.” Smith said ‘And we go out and contract with growers to get those acres. Then our field department looks at the seed during the growing season, then the farmer harvests and brings them in.”

They receive seeds mostly from Idaho, and some of our surrounding states. Once they receive the seeds, they then clean them with different filters and then use an automatic sorting machine to make sure they get a high-quality batch. Smith said they then must germinate the seeds for two different reasons.

“Because customers want good quality seeds that will grow and there’s also a federal seed act that gives you guidelines of what the germs have to be between.”

The federal seed act is to protect buyers from contaminated and un-fit seeds. In a season, Kimberly international seeds will produce up to 12 million pounds of seeds for their customers, with up to 5,000 seeds per pound.

And for agriculture, Smith said the company plays an important part.

“Customers rely on us because of the area we grow in. Were one of the few companies around in Idaho that will custom produce for people. And the home garden seeds, there’s not many that do the bulk volume that we do to send to all the packet companies and the catalog companies so it’s pretty important what we do.”

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