Crunching the numbers on leasing land and expanding my grow efforts. Need a clue. When buying pounds, what is a normal price per pound? Do you buy fresh, dried, or mash? I do not have to come up with customers to figure it out, just numbers for potential crop value so I can compare it to cost.
Hot sauce makers - Give me a clue about pepper prices
- Thread starter AJ Drew
- Start date
I get fresh fresnos and ripe jalas for around $3-5 per lb in the city, usually in 10lb boxes. Manzanos are $4-6. Scotch bonnets and habs are roughly the same, but I'm in a major metro area. For most of my sauce making I'm buying fresh peppers and using my own dried peppers to bump up or round out a sauce.
Smokefire, I -think- those prices are retail at the grocery store yes? Our local Krogers, Walart, and even Save a Lot grocery stores have a local and organic section where they sell premium. Believe it or not, there is also a HUGE produce seller at a flee market down the way. I am thinking I should make a list of what they sell, grow it next year, approach them, see if they are interested,and then think about leasing land for the following season with the information I acquired from the previous year.
I do worry that they seem to have a very limited space dedicated to hot peppers. It seems they are mostly selling bell and other large sweet peppers. Those varieties want much more water. Was not thinking irrigation. My guess is the reason bell peppers are so expensive is they need irrigation.
Thoughts?
I do worry that they seem to have a very limited space dedicated to hot peppers. It seems they are mostly selling bell and other large sweet peppers. Those varieties want much more water. Was not thinking irrigation. My guess is the reason bell peppers are so expensive is they need irrigation.
Thoughts?
ajdrew said:
Hot sauce makers buy fresh or mash, and usually only dried if that pepper is traditionally dried or smoked. Mash because it is consistent and available year round. You can price mashes here: http://lapepperexchange.com/shopsite/index.html
For fresh pods it depends on a few variables:
1. Scale - typically, if you buy 10 lbs of peppers they will invariably be more per lb than 500 lbs, which will be more per lb than 5000 lbs.
2.. If it is a rare exotic pepper or one that's exclusive to one grower there may not be a bulk discount, or as much of one.
3. IQF is another option to avoid seasonality.
4. Your relationship with the grower - are you a frequent flier or a 1st rime customer? Sometimes this matters. Sometimes not. But it is a factor
5. Time of year / state of the pods. If it's later in the season & the pods are a little rough, you may be able to get them on the cheap. If it's peak season for a relatively common pepper, you might get a little break since everyone has them. If it's early it might be a stitch more costly, as a grower may have to do more work to get the qty you require.
There are probably more factors to consider, but these were the 1st to come to mind.
1. Scale - typically, if you buy 10 lbs of peppers they will invariably be more per lb than 500 lbs, which will be more per lb than 5000 lbs.
2.. If it is a rare exotic pepper or one that's exclusive to one grower there may not be a bulk discount, or as much of one.
3. IQF is another option to avoid seasonality.
4. Your relationship with the grower - are you a frequent flier or a 1st rime customer? Sometimes this matters. Sometimes not. But it is a factor
5. Time of year / state of the pods. If it's later in the season & the pods are a little rough, you may be able to get them on the cheap. If it's peak season for a relatively common pepper, you might get a little break since everyone has them. If it's early it might be a stitch more costly, as a grower may have to do more work to get the qty you require.
There are probably more factors to consider, but these were the 1st to come to mind.
Hot Pepper - That link was both helpful and scary. Helpful because I had no idea mash was sold uncooked and requiring further processing. Sounds like the rules are likely closer to fresh produce than they are to finished products, thus I will bet the facility requirements are less difficult to comply. Scary because they sell their product in different sizes including 55 gallon drums. Dear god that is a lot of pepper mash. Makes me think I should focus on artisan sauce makers because the big boys would laugh at what tiny amounts I could produce.
SalsaLady - $10.00 a pound fresh (not processed or washed) is about where I figure I break even if paying about the same per hour for people to harvest. But that is a wild speculation based on how much I pick n process in an hour. Mainly sell by volume because weight means using a scale that is certified once a year. Going to have to get a scale and weigh a few boxes to put that into perspective. Any clue what a small flat rate box would average in weight? Probably a dumb question due to pod size and density, but figure there might be a rule of thumb thing.
Luckydog - Thanks. A lot of this is outside my scope. When my mentor raised pigs, he would grow them until they were ready and then they went to auction. When he grew tobacco, he grew it, cured it, and then sent it to auction. All be it not always for the price he wanted, but everything he produced sold every year. The idea of finding wholesale buyers and forming relationships is kind of intimidating. You might have noticed I am none too good at finding the right words at times.
SalsaLady - $10.00 a pound fresh (not processed or washed) is about where I figure I break even if paying about the same per hour for people to harvest. But that is a wild speculation based on how much I pick n process in an hour. Mainly sell by volume because weight means using a scale that is certified once a year. Going to have to get a scale and weigh a few boxes to put that into perspective. Any clue what a small flat rate box would average in weight? Probably a dumb question due to pod size and density, but figure there might be a rule of thumb thing.
Luckydog - Thanks. A lot of this is outside my scope. When my mentor raised pigs, he would grow them until they were ready and then they went to auction. When he grew tobacco, he grew it, cured it, and then sent it to auction. All be it not always for the price he wanted, but everything he produced sold every year. The idea of finding wholesale buyers and forming relationships is kind of intimidating. You might have noticed I am none too good at finding the right words at times.
Re:forging relationships, sometimes I get to know suppliers, sometimes I don't. Even impersonal ones sometimes knock you a break if you've been buying from them for a while. A couple of my suppliers send me christmas cards & some send me nothing but give me consistent quality. Don't worry too much about "forging" - if you make it a point to have quality, follow-through, and professionalism you'll have customers for life.
