Pricing of Produce

The way the wholesale market works is like a stock market, or produce auction. Basic economics.

e.g. When a farmer sends down 100kg lychees to sell in Sydney, he will not know the price until the stock arrives at his agent’s warehouse. The moment trade begins, the agent will assess if there is plenty of stock of mangoes at the market, or if its scarce.

Plentiful supply of lychees (doesn’t matter variety) means there will be bargaining by the greengrocers and retailers over price per kg. Agents will have to negotiate order quantity and pricing.

Scarce/limited supply and high demand, agents will provide a premium pricing to benefit farmers.

Early season produce will always be high regardless of quality and variety. Unless the farmer has a well known reputation, of course.

Case in point, these early season lychees are retailing $45/kg. Wholesale would probably be in the low $40+/kg or high $30+/kg.

This is why I will not know pricing of new produce until I meet the supplier. The farmers do NOT determine the price of goods. They can only indicate their cost and upwards price per kg desired.

Even then, the price the next day can drop considerably, if they are still holding stock for the farmer.

So if you compare some of my pricing to the supermarkets like Coles & Woolies - they have bigger buying power than I do. They will/can bring pricing down for themselves.

Comparison with greengrocers are more likely to be similar, as they don’t buy as high volume. However, if consumers don’t buy mangoes on day 1 of arrival... and it’s still there by day 6, ripening... pricing drops because they need to get rid of stock. I will do the same if I have excess I can’t sell. But more often when possible, I will usually buy fresh on arrival and a Class/Grade available to most premium grocers.