Fruit Trees:
WHAT WILL YOU CHARGE TO THE PUBLIC PER POUND?
This topic comes up from time to time in different forums. Since we have ALL experienced a huge jump in the cost of living the past 2-3 years our home/farm sales should also cover our higher costs.
Yes, your answer is unique to your area/zone, and you may not even grow some of these, but just explain what makes it unique for you.
We are in East Tennessee, Zone 7a (Between Knoxville and Chattanooga)
Last year we sold everything at $1/lb. (whether we picked or the customer) This year weāre jumping to $1.50/Lb, possibly $2 for Peaches.
We sell everything listed below except the last two(2) on the list and I would add Greenhouse raised blackberry ($25/gallon picked).
Apples
Peach/Nectarine
European Pear
Asian Pear
Plum
Persimmon
Citrus (there wont be many of you)
I donāt run a commercial operation, but here in CT orchards charge $40-45/half a bushel of apples (you pick). I have also seen pluots at a farm outlet for $8/lb. Both are pretty expensiveā¦
Those are great prices you have. I donāt sell anything but eat it all and share some with friends n family. Some people offer me big money for figs $5 per fig but Iād rather eat them and share here and there.
I am glad to have some local Farmers Markets most are mountain grown from the Sierra Foothills and Placerville some come with strawberries, blueberries and brassicas from Central Valley to the ocean side by Monterrey area. The nuts come from
Here I see things like apples, asian pears, plums, apricots and pluts in the Farmers Markets run anywhere from $2.50-4.50 per lb. Typically $3.00-$3.50 for some of the best pluots ever.
Cherries $4-$6 per lb.
Pomelos $6-$8 each
Figs $5 per small basket
Berries $4-$7 small basket
XV Olive oil $30 per 34 oz bottle
Many different local grown nuts about $5-$10 per lb.
Persimmons and Pomegranate $2-$4 per lb. Towards the last few sells of the year they often sell them for $1.00 per lb.
Visiting an orchard to pick is a different model than selling at a market. The customer is paying for the experience going to the farm, as much as the actual produce. Regardless, I would say prices should be at least equal to those paid in a grocery store, and around here for apples that is at least $2/lb for common stuff (Gala, Granny Smith) and 3.00/lb for Honeycrisp.
My recommendation is to not sell yourself short and sell fresh for what it should cost. Then process the rest and make value added products like cider, people pay a lot for cider around here.
Ripe peaches donāt compare to grocery store options, they should be a premium price to reflect that. If sales arenāt what they should be it might be worthwhile to invest time or money into marketing. Or, partner with local retailers for wholesale pricing if available?
Also when i grew Passionfruit in Colorado Springs, i sold them for 2-3$ a fruit. Safeway always had them for 4$ a fruit so i priced lower. Would sell out in a few hundred in a few days.
I sold my own as well as some from a friendās farm in Florida that shipped to me at bulk pricing.
In my opinion you could even up prices a bit for āu pickā, because you will lose about 20% of what customers pick.
Another big plus for you is that you grow your mini commercial orchard which means much less chemicals - therefore a higher price for a pound of healthy fruit.
This is the same case everywhere in any part of the world, where one region/state/province have very big price margin. Thatās how many people earn for living using this price difference
It depend on your location and customers. You are not competing with a grocery store, which have a big overhead cost. So, donāt match the grocery store pricing. Base on last year, you are able to sell everything at 1.00 lb. So this year, raising to 1.5 lb to 2 lb is the correct thing to do. See if you can sell everything at this price.
I would not raise price drastically as it might turn some customers off, but raise price slowly every year until you know what is the right price. Thatās what I would do, but everybody is different.
I make some preserves (Strawberry, Peach, Blackberry, Blueberry, Plum) when I have the time and the fruit is available. Itās not great for profit and itās a bit harder to sell, but Iāve had people crack a jar before leaving and buy 2 more. Iāve sold Half-pints for $8 and Pints for $12. Iāll need to revisit prices once I make them again. Pectin and Sugar have gone up at least 30%.
Glass, lids and rings, have also gone up like crazy. Best prices we found is at Menards, if you got one around by you. If you get a green house you might could sell vegetable starts. They are also crazy expensive nowadays.
What are you trying to do by raising your prices? Are you trying to compete with grocery stores and their pricing? Are you trying to just cover the costs of your fruit sprays and the such? Just curious. Fruit is one thing you cannot just put away until next year like if it were a non perishable item. You either sell the fruit when it is fresh or end up throwing it away when it gets too soft or rotting. Just curious as to why the 50% to 100% price increase. Your customers will notice the big price increase if they have been regular customers over the years.
To me better to sell it cheaper than a store so you give the customers good fruit and get rid of it all before it goes bad.
We actually have a pretty big one where we grow blackberry (30x96). But with all of the other things I have (Plus a full-time job) I just canāt make time much as Iāve wanted to do that. Itās nuts what they charge for starts. My cost is something like $0.75 for a 4-pack.
I think I pretty much explained āmyā intent in the opening post. But let me expand on it a bit. Over the past 2 years Iāve seen the cost of living move up about 25% while my employees and myself (Day job) maybe were compensated 7% over that same time. While my vendors have increased their prices a good 30-35% (Day job and our farm) my company saw fit to hardly raise their prices. Iām not so naive nor am I desperate to sell my fruit. YES, I would rather Can/Process or Dispose of my fruit (Give it to my cattle) than sell at a loss and drive prices down further.
Sure, I understand the logic doesnāt seem to work. Youāre thinking that something is better than nothing and that we should all just āsuck it upā like my employer is currently doing. BTW, his business does just fine but heās stuck in the sand with bald tires, unable to expand, because heās cash poor.
At $1.50 Iām still charging $0.50/lb less than the local stores. And freshly picked, from the tree fruit is FAR FAR FAR superior to anything the stores sell. I donāt know what you grow, but when I buy a Honeycrisp at the same time my own come ripe, OMG, I want to spit the store bought out of my mouth. And itās that way with any fresh fruit. My customers are allowed to āgrazeā (as we call it). When we do U-pick we hand them a new 5-gal bucket and they usually come back for a 2nd. They get a superior product at less than store prices. Win-Win.
I think last year we sold about 2500 lbs of tree- fruits and weāre doubling our trees this Spring (High-Density Apple and Asian Pear). There was an incredible responseā¦ it was just that good.
And also yes. Fertilizer costs have gone up about 25%. Fuelās up 25-50% (Diesel). Herbicides, Fungicides, Pesticides are up about 30%ā¦ and labor (my time) is worth something.
Like you, Iām curious what others are doing and looking to see if Iām āout of lineā with other small growers. And at the same time, people here have the same experience: they can see what others are charging.
