The southeastern Saskatchewan company said Friday that while it "continues to show significant overall growth," it's "weathered a short-term dip in overseas orders, which have slowed significantly in relation to where they were a year ago."

Overseas sales are expected to remain below its forecasts for the next quarter, the company said.

"We expect that by early August 2010, staffing levels will once again be increasing and will reach pre-global recession levels very soon," Seed Hawk's vice-president of operations, Gordon Wyatt, said in a release.

The decision does not affect the company's plans for a $7.5 million, 55,000-square foot expansion that's expected to both consolidate and triple manufacturing capacity into its facility at Langbank, Sask., about 120 km west of Virden, Man.

Seed Hawk said Friday it's using the economic downturn as an opportunity to "fine-tune" its operations, "which makes the previously announced manufacturing plant expansion and resulting efficiency gains even more important to the company."

The planned expansion, announced in February, is the second phase of a longer-term plan, which followed additions of office and assembly space at Langbank in 2007.

That first expansion came after Vaderstad-Verken, a Swedish farm equipment maker, bought a minority stake in Seed Hawk in 2006. That deal was credited with opening up international markets for Seed Hawk, spurring the need for expansion.

Seed Hawk said Friday its management is "working closely" with Vaderstad to expand export sales.

"The impending introduction of new technology for the eastern European market, and recent successes within Russia and Kazakhstan, point to an improving overseas sales climate."