Pricing Guide for Growers
Setting the right prices is crucial for your farm's success. This guide helps you price products competitively while ensuring profitability and fair compensation for your hard work.
Understanding Your Costs
Direct Production Costs
- Seeds and transplants
- Fertilizers and amendments
- Pest and disease management
- Irrigation and water costs
- Harvest labor and supplies
- Packaging materials
Overhead Costs
- Land lease or mortgage
- Equipment depreciation
- Insurance premiums
- Utilities and fuel
- Marketing expenses
- Your time and management
Pricing Strategies
💰 Cost-Plus Pricing
Calculate your total costs and add a profit margin.
Price = (Direct Costs + Overhead Allocation) × (1 + Profit Margin)Example: If tomatoes cost $2.50/lb to produce and you want a 40% margin, price at $3.50/lb
🏪 Market-Based Pricing
Research competitor prices and position accordingly.
- Survey local farmers' markets
- Check grocery store organic sections
- Review online market prices
- Consider your unique value proposition
💎 Value-Based Pricing
Price based on the unique value you provide.
- Specialty or heirloom varieties
- Certified organic production
- Same-day harvest freshness
- Personal relationship with grower
Seasonal Pricing Considerations
🌱 Early Season
First-to-market products command premium prices. Consider charging 20-30% more for early tomatoes, greens, and berries.
☀️ Peak Season
When supply is abundant, focus on volume and competitive pricing. Consider bulk discounts and special deals to move inventory.
🍂 Late Season
As supply dwindles, prices can rise again. Storage crops and preserved goods offer opportunities for value-added pricing.
Pricing by Product Category
Fresh Produce
| Factor | Pricing Impact |
|---|---|
| Perishability | Higher markup for highly perishable items |
| Labor intensity | Hand-harvested items need higher prices |
| Yield per plant | Low-yield crops require premium pricing |
Value-Added Products
Processed items like jams, pickles, and baked goods can command 3-5x the price of raw ingredients. Factor in:
- Processing time and labor
- Commercial kitchen rental
- Packaging and labeling costs
- Shelf life and storage requirements
Pricing Products Sold by Weight
🏷️ Flat Price Method (What Most Growers Use)
Set one price per item based on its typical weight. A 4.5-pound chicken is $18, whether it actually weighs 4.3 or 4.7 pounds. Simple for everyone.
Why This Works:
- Customers see the final price right when they order—no surprises
- You skip the tedious work of weighing and adjusting every order
- Checkout is smooth and payments go through without a hitch
- Fewer "wait, why did my total change?" conversations
- Perfect for online ordering where customers aren't standing in front of you
Things to Keep in Mind:
- You'll occasionally give a bit more or less than the average weight
- Takes some practice to set realistic average weights
- Price it right so the variation doesn't eat into your profits
Here's How It Looks:
Product: Whole Chicken
Price: $18.00
Average Weight: 4.5 lbs
Description: "Whole chicken, approximately 4-5 lbs, $18 flat rate"
Always mention the typical weight range in your description. Customers appreciate knowing what to expect, and it heads off questions before they start.
⚖️ Actual Weight Method
Charge by the exact weight of each item—$4/lb means a 4.3-pound chicken costs $17.20 and a 4.7-pound one costs $18.80. More precise, but requires extra bookkeeping.
The Upside:
- Perfect precision—everyone pays exactly for what they receive
- You never lose money on heavier items
- Completely fair across different sizes
The Reality Check:
- You'll be weighing products and updating orders before every pickup
- Customers won't know their final total until you've done the math
- Extra admin work for every single order
- Payment systems can get cranky about post-order price changes
- Expect customer questions: "Why is my total different now?"
- You'll need crystal-clear descriptions explaining how this works
Here's How It Looks:
Product: Whole Chicken
Price: $4.00/lb
Estimated Weight: 4.5 lbs (for ordering purposes)
Description: "Whole chicken at $4.00/lb. Your final price depends on
the actual weight of your bird (usually 4-5 lbs). We'll update your order total once
we know the exact weight."
Heads up: This means weighing every item and adjusting each order before pickup day. Make sure you have the time and tools to handle this extra step.
📋 Individual Item Listing Method
List every single item separately—each chicken, each steak, each roast—with its exact weight and price, quantity set to 1. Sounds wild, but some growers and markets actually do it this way.
The Upside:
- Customers see exactly what they're getting—no estimates, no adjustments
- Perfect transparency—this 1.8 lb steak is $9.00, that 2.1 lb one is $10.50
- No post-sale price changes or customer confusion
- Works well if you pre-package everything with labels anyway
The Reality Check:
- Prepare for very long product lists—a dozen chickens = a dozen listings
- You'll be creating/deleting products constantly as inventory comes and goes
- Customers have to scroll through many similar items to find their preferred size
- More clicks and management overhead than the other approaches
- Only practical if you butcher/package everything before opening orders
- Makes it harder to show availability at a glance
Here's How It Looks:
Instead of one "Whole Chicken" product, you'd have:
- 🐔 Whole Chicken #1 - 3.8 lbs - $17.10 - Qty: 1
- 🐔 Whole Chicken #2 - 4.2 lbs - $18.90 - Qty: 1
- 🐔 Whole Chicken #3 - 4.5 lbs - $20.25 - Qty: 1
- 🐔 Whole Chicken #4 - 3.9 lbs - $17.55 - Qty: 1
- 🐔 Whole Chicken #5 - 4.8 lbs - $21.60 - Qty: 1
- ...and so on for every single bird
This approach is honestly pretty rare. Most growers find it too tedious to manage, but if you're already labeling and pricing each item individually for a physical market stand, it might make sense for your workflow.
Making Weight Pricing Work for You
- Pick a lane and stay in it: Choose flat pricing or by-weight pricing and use the same method for all your similar products. Switching back and forth just confuses people (including you).
- Say it out loud: Spell out exactly how you're pricing things in every product description. "Approximately 4-5 lbs" or "final price based on actual weight"—don't make customers guess.
- Be honest about weights: If you're doing flat pricing, use real numbers from your actual products, not what you wish they weighed. Check a few batches first.
- Give yourself a cushion: When setting flat prices, assume you might give out the heavier end of your range. Price accordingly so you're not losing money.
- Know what you're signing up for: By-weight pricing means you're committing to weigh everything and fiddle with orders. Make sure that fits your schedule on pickup day.
- Keep an eye on things: After a few weeks of flat pricing, check if you're coming out ahead or behind. Adjust your prices if the numbers aren't working.
Why Separate Listings Instead of Dropdown Menus?
Fair question. You've probably shopped online stores where you pick your size from a dropdown menu—why can't LocallyGrown work that way? Short answer: we tried it, and separate listings turn out to be way simpler for small-scale growers. Here's the deal:
❌ The Dropdown Menu Approach
- Inventory nightmares: You're tracking quantities for every size option inside every product. Chuck roast small, chuck roast medium, chuck roast large, and that's just one cut.
- Nested confusion: Your ribeyes come in different sizes than your chuck roasts. Now you're managing unique dropdown lists for each product type. It gets messy fast.
- Hidden stock: Customers have to click into every product and open dropdowns to see if you have their size. Extra clicks mean lost sales.
- Steep learning curve: Setting up nested options and variant inventory? That's eCommerce expert territory, not farmer-friendly.
- The analogy: It's like asking a butcher "what do you have?" and they hand you a binder to flip through instead of showing you the case.
✅ The Separate Listings Approach
- Dead simple setup: Copy your existing product, change the weight and price, maybe adjust the quantity. Done. Three minutes, tops.
- Everything's visible: Customers see all sizes and how many you have left without clicking around. No surprises.
- Scroll and shop: Your whole inventory is right there on the page. Customers browse just like they would at a market stall.
- No mystery naming: "Chuck Roast - 1.5 lb" or "Ribeye Steak - 1 lb, boneless"—everyone knows exactly what they're getting.
- The analogy: It's like a butcher shop where all the cuts are laid out in the display case. You see it, you want it, you grab it.
The Bottom Line: Yes, separate listings mean longer product pages. But they're infinitely easier to manage and way less confusing for customers. We watched too many growers wrestle with dropdown systems and variant tracking. LocallyGrown is built for real farmers selling real products, not for running the next Amazon.
Example: Selling Different Chicken Sizes
Instead of one "Whole Chicken" product with a size dropdown menu, you'd create three simple listings:
- 🐔 Whole Chicken - Small (3-3.5 lbs) - $15.00 - Qty: 5
- 🐔 Whole Chicken - Medium (4-4.5 lbs) - $18.00 - Qty: 8
- 🐔 Whole Chicken - Large (5-5.5 lbs) - $22.00 - Qty: 3
Your customers scan the list, see exactly what's available, and click the one they want. You're managing three straightforward products instead of wrestling with one complicated product that has size variants and nested inventory counts. Everyone wins.
Simple Pricing Calculator
Example: Pricing a Pound of Tomatoes
Common Pricing Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Ignoring Your Time
Your time has value. Include a fair wage for yourself in your cost calculations, not just hired labor.
❌ Forgetting Hidden Costs
Transportation, market fees, payment processing, and spoilage all affect your bottom line. Track everything.
❌ Undervaluing Quality
Don't assume customers only care about price. Many will pay more for superior quality, freshness, and service.
❌ Static Pricing
Review and adjust prices regularly based on costs, demand, and market conditions. Flexibility is key to profitability.
Pricing Communication Tips
Be Transparent
Help customers understand the value they're getting. Share your growing practices, highlight freshness, and explain what makes your products special.
Offer Options
Provide different price points through various package sizes, bulk discounts, or "seconds" quality options for price-sensitive customers.
Test and Adjust
Start with your calculated prices, then observe sales patterns. Don't be afraid to adjust based on customer response and market conditions.