ABSTRACT
For the last 130 years, commodities generated through pastoral farming have been the largest component in New Zealand’s export trade. Indeed, for much of this time they have collectively accounted for 90 percent or more of it (Bloomfield 1984; Le Heron 1996). While many of these commodities, such as wool, mutton and dairy produce, have been highly visible in international markets, the trade in the raw material that has underpinned these commodity chains, that is grass seed, has attracted little attention. This may have been due to the highly localised nature of the industry in terms of seed production, together with the fact that grass seed, unlike most other pastoral commodities, is not a product for household or industrial consumption, but is instead absorbed back into the primary sector.
