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It is an important aspect of seaplant value chains that they belong to a segment of global commerce that produces “specialty” crops. Typical specialty crop value chains involve a high-value, low-volume market profile and they often involve a high proportion of SME. Besides seaplant value chains, examples of specialty crop value chains are those producing fresh and processed forms of plant and animal products including (but not limited to) meat, eggs and dairy products; fruits, vegetables; breeding stock, pets and laboratory test animals; horticultural, silvicultural and landscaping crops; herbs, spices, flavors, fragrances, dyes, fibers and biopolymers; dietary supplements, plant stimulants, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. The specialty crop segment of global commerce includes millions of SME that possess legitimate ownership and/or proprietary rights to geographic locations that possess special characteristics. For example, in the case of seaplant value chains farming must usually be undertaken at sites:

Such sites can be hard to get. With open-sea sites, for example, many jurisdictions have no formal concession systems or licensing procedures for sea farming ventures. The acquisition of usage privileges for the best seaplant farming sites are generally reserved for bona fide local SME with the necessary characteristics and "clout". Access to such privileges is a crucial core resource that these SME bring to strategic alliance networks.

“Specialty” crops have characteristics that differentiate them from the “staple” crops normally listed on commodity exchanges. Production tends to be limited and specialty crops or products tend to be graded and priced on the basis of quality. Many seaplant value chains sell into markets where their products have a derived demand (e.g. biopolymers) so the development of new products and markets requires joint innovation among suppliers and customers. Many seaplant products are blends of several base products that are sold as “solutions” with a high intellectual property component. Also many seaplant products such as nutraceuticals, bioactive substances and foods are subject to stringent regulatory controls and standards.

Markets for seaplant products are globally dispersed so seaplant value chains tend to involve transactions across trans-jurisdictional boundaries. The profusion of legal systems (many poorly developed), the lack of law and order in areas key to the industry (e.g. seaweed production areas in the southern Philippines and remote areas of Indonesia) and the wide variety of linguistic and cultural demarcations results in a situation where legal or hierarchical governance systems are not a practical option in forming business organizations. Therefore trust relationships such as strategic business alliances can be essential to long-term business success. The formation of trust in such alliances is a function of the person-to-person relationships known as “relational social capital”.

Trust exists by virtue of relationships among people within allied enterprises. Building such relationships can entail the expenditure of a great deal of time, effort and expense during periods of trial and error. SME tend to be owner-operated so time and effort are among the most limited and valuable assets of SME managers. However, although building trust-commitment-based strategic alliances can be costly and risky and trust must be effectively managed, it turns out that trust relationships, once formed, become valuable long-term core resources for SME intent on retaining their independence as they participate in global value chains.