Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] How do you determine market/wholesale price?

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Marcy" <mlynn AT pcisys.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] How do you determine market/wholesale price?
  • Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:40:48 -0600

This list is a great place to ask if you've got something different that you
haven't sold and others around aren't selling. For instance when I started
selling squash blossoms one year at market I checked here.
One of my (many) jobs is the coordinator for a local group of like-minded
farms who sell to a group of restaurants and stores. I compile a weekly
availability listing from all the farms and send it out to the accounts,
take the orders and then notify each of the farms of their orders.
Sometimes a particular farm will say I don't want to sell XX for less than
$$. Sometimes they know they're high or low but want to keep it that way -
they've got a ton of sweet salad turnips that they want to move or they
don't want to sell too many baby beets because they really want them for
their CSA members. But sometimes they'll ask me to check on pricing for
them.
I figure it's my job to balance between getting us the best price I can and
moving the most produce we can. Many times you can get a better price
selling at the market. If you already have a wholesale account that is
supportive of you, they might be willing to tell you what their wholesaler
is charging on certain items or maybe even give you their price list.
I also check on the USDA website. Under "Condition" (I think) it will list
"organic" and that's what we're trying to be close to.
http://www.marketnews.usda.gov/portal/fv?paf_dm=full&paf_gear_id=1200002&sta
rtIndex=1&dr=1&navType=comm&navClass=VEGETABLES&final=true
or here: http://tinyurl.com/cnxqr6

There's also a regional organic distributor that I sometimes compare prices
to out of Denver. http://www.growersorganic.com/produce.html

And the Rodale site already posted.

It's a bit different than determining prices for an individual farm, but
maybe it'll help a little.

Marcy
SE Colo - where winter and snow finally arrived!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Meadows" <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] How do you determine market/wholesale price?


> On Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:34:00 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>I'm working on a cost/price analysis for a local co-ops farm and it got me
>>wondering how most small farms determine their prices. Do you factor
>>expenses and costs that go into the product? Do you generally follow the
>>average market price? Do you factor in organic/local/no chemical into the
>>price?
>>
>>I further started thinking about some sort of online survey- or a website-
>>where local farmers could go to get average prices in their region and for
>>the country. What do heirloom tomatoes sell for this year? How much does
>>mixed green go per pound? Would this be helpful?





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page