Mr. Nice Seedbank

Mr. Nice Seedbank was created by Shantibaba and Howard Marks. The two met in the late 1990s during their time working and living in Holland. Shantibaba had created Greenhouse Seed Company in 1995 at the same time that Howard Marks was released from long imprisonment in the United States. After their meeting, the two quickly became good friends.

They discussed working together and decided they would start a seed company to help growers around the world. This led to Shantibaba selling his interest in Greenhouse Seed Company in 1998. Then he formed Mr. Nice Seedbank as the sole trader. Mr. Nice Seedbank has always been a Dutch company.

The company began with 40 parent plants and the goal of making seeds and strains available for growers of all levels. The ultimate goal was to improve cannabis’s genetic diversity. Part of the primary efforts of Mr. Nice Seedbank in the early days was to make the new and old-world seeds available to growers, without regard to the profits.

Changes to the Dutch laws in 1999 meant that Mr. Nice Seedbank could not produce seeds anymore. Instead, they were limited to selling imported seeds. This led to the company shifting growing operations to Switzerland, where the plants flourished.