06/12/2026
Seed packet pricing is something gardeners are talking about more and more, and we understand why.
Prices are rising everywhere. Inflation is real. Overhead is real. Fair wages matter. Shipping, supplies, packaging, equipment, rent, utilities, insurance, software, labor, and basic operating costs all continue to climb. Any honest business has to account for that, especially if they want to take care of their team and keep serving customers well.
Before we speak on our own pricing, we do want to briefly clarify something.
Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with Burpee. We are simply trying to correct the fear and confusion caused by an incomplete price comparison. We believe in fair marketing, not disparaging claims, fear tactics, or misleading comparisons.
A price comparison has been circulating using 2 Burpee packets, but seed packet prices can vary depending on retailer, location, product line, and whether the packet is organic or conventional. We have seen Burpee packets still listed around $1.96 in some places, organic Burpee packets around $2.46 at Walmart, and we have Burpee flower packets from 2026 on this desk right now marked at $1.96.
We are not Burpee, and we are not speaking for Burpee. But we also do not want to build our marketing by creating a misleading impression about another company’s prices. Accuracy matters. Integrity matters.
Our story is different, and that is what we want to speak on.
At Alliance of Native Seedkeepers / Bertie County Seeds, we are still small. Very small compared to most major seed companies. Sometimes people see our catalog, website, social media, or the number of orders we ship and assume we are a large company. We are not. We are a small operation that has been growing through hard work, trial and error, long days, mistakes, corrections, and constant learning.
People who have seen us from the beginning know how difficult it has been to build this. Establishing an operation like this has not been easy. We have made mistakes. We will probably make more. But when we do, we do our best to correct them, learn from them, and build better systems so the same issues do not keep happening.
Since we started, our prices have actually gone down. In the beginning, many of our packets were between $3 and $4. Today, our packets are $2, and in many cases our seed quantities have increased at the same time.
That did not happen by accident.
It happened because as we have grown, we have invested in better equipment, more space, better software, improved systems, more team and team training, and better ways of doing the work. When those improvements help us save money in one area, we try to pass those savings on whenever we can.
There is also something happening across many industries right now: shrinkflation.
That is when the price stays the same, or goes up, while the customer quietly receives less. Smaller packages. Fewer seeds. Less product. Same shelf space. Same basic presentation. Less value in the hands of the customer.
At Alliance of Native Seedkeepers / Bertie County Seeds, we do not want to build our company that way.
Next year, our intention is to keep our seed packets at $2.00 while not participating in shrinkflation. Our goal is not to give gardeners less. Our goal is to continue improving our seed counts, service, systems, team, fulfillment, and the overall experience people have with us.
(Did you know, you can get some seeds in larger quantities by the oz/lb at a significantly lower prices? We save cost on packing by allowing you to weigh your own in our store)
This is the first year we have actually had a decent amount of team behind the work. By next peak season, we will finally have team members who have been with us for at least a year, who have learned our systems, our standards, our products, and our way of doing things.
We are also confident that we will have our seed packing machine working before next peak season. This will be huge because better equipment means better efficiency. Better efficiency means we can pack more seed, ship more orders and ship them faster, make fewer errors, support our team better, and continue offering more value to gardeners.
Each year, we get better.
But we also want to be very clear about something:
The most important thing to us is that people eat.
That includes the families buying seed from us. It includes the gardeners trying to stretch a budget. It includes the people growing food for themselves, their children, their elders, and their communities.
And it also includes us and our team.
The people packing seeds, printing packets, labeling orders, shipping packages, answering messages, managing systems, improving our software, organizing inventory, and doing the daily work behind this company also need to eat, pay bills, support their households, and live with dignity.
Affordable seed matters. Fair wages matter. Food access matters. Worker dignity matters. These values do not have to fight each other. A seed company built with integrity has to care about both sides: the people receiving the seed and the people doing the work to get it there.
The most important thing is that people have access to affordable seeds, affordable food, and the ability to grow something for themselves and their families. Even if that seed does not come from us. Even if that food does not come through us. If someone is growing, eating, saving money, feeding their children, helping a neighbor, or putting food back into their household, that matters more than whether we made the sale.
Because of that, we will not disparage companies that have traditionally helped keep seed prices low, especially through years of inflation and rising costs. Packet prices can vary. A larger retailer may be able to offer a lower price because of scale. A smaller retailer, a store in a higher-cost area, or a business with different overhead may need a different price in order to keep the work sustainable. There are plenty of things in the seed industry with larger seed companies we can criticize, but we need to be honest in our criticism.
All of this is important to us because one day, we intend to issue our own seed racks.
When that day comes, we know there will be real costs involved. Retailers carrying our packets will have their own overhead. Their staff deserve fair wages. Stores in higher-cost areas may need different pricing than stores in lower-cost areas. We do not want to criticize parts of the seed business that we have not fully stepped into ourselves.
What we can say is.... Our standard is integrity.
We want to build a seed company that keeps prices accessible, treats customers fairly, respects the labor behind the work, corrects misinformation when we see it, and refuses to quietly reduce value while asking gardeners to pay more.
We are not here to shame people for where they buy seed. Gardeners have choices, and they should. We are simply working to be one of the most affordable, generous, and trustworthy choices available while making sure the people behind the work can also afford to live.
Right now, our packets are $2.00.
Next year, our intention is to keep them $2.00.
No shrinkflation. No games. Just better systems, better service, a stronger team, and more seed in the hands of the people.
Let's eat!
