b'JUSTIN DAVIShas been around the vegeta-ble seed business long enough to know that momentum can be misleading.New tools arrive with promise. New platforms promise efficiency. New ownership structures promise scale. But Davis, executive director of commercial operations at Sakata Seed America, has learned to measure progress differently. After nearly three decades in seed, beginning in produc-tion fields and moving through supply chain leader-ship and sales, he tends to look past the headline and focus on whether change improves execution.Right now, he sees a sector moving quickly, but unevenly.The vegetable seed sector is moving fast and ever changing with the new breeding technology, and AI and all these other great things, Davis says. So that gives me confidence that small and mid sized players can compete in this market against the larger, more capital funded companies.Why Vegetable Seed Companies Cant Afford To Move Slow AnymoreFrom AI-accelerated breeding to supply chain reality checks, Sakata Seed Americas Justin Davis explains where momentum is building, where risk is hiding and why culture may matter more than scale in the next five years.By Aimee Nielson, Seed World U.S. EditorThat confidence, however, is grounded in pres-sure rather than optimism. Consolidation continues to reshape the seed industry, narrowing ownership while increasing expectations. Grower consolida-tion adds another layer, shifting buying power and compressing margins at the same time.Theres a lot of consolidation in the market right now, both on the grower side as well as in the seed breeder part, Davis says. Theres a lot of smaller companies being bought.Vegetable and flower seed often avoid the sharpest volatility seen in row crops, but Davis says they still feel the downstream effects. Capital, attention and internal resources are frequently pulled toward larger acreage crops, leaving veg-etable seed teams expected to perform with fewer people and tighter budgets.8/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2026'