FAIR FARM PRICING INITIATIVE
PRICING
TOOL
Updating Your Produce Profit Margin Calculator
Thank you for using this tool. It was built to make your pricing decisions easier, and it is meant to grow and change along with your farm. You do not need to be a spreadsheet expert to use it. Every number you might want to adjust lives in one friendly, clearly marked place: the Variables section, found in the Calculator tab just below the crop table.
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Change a number there, and every crop's costs and profit will update on its own. You will not need to touch anything else in the sheet.
What it controls
Fertilizer and irrigation cost per bed
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Box unit price
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Bag unit price
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Base hourly wage
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Self-employment tax rate
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Grower contract share (percent of retail price paid to the grower
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General operating cost per bed per season
A couple of cells are calculated for you automatically, so there is no need to type into these directly:
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D37, Tomato box unit price, adds up the cost of the box, lid, and shipping. If any of those three costs change, it is best to update the formula rather than replacing it with a flat number.
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D40, Loaded labor rate, is simply your base wage plus the self-employment tax rate. It will update on its own whenever you change D38 or D39.
Cell to edit
D34
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D35
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D36
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D38
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D39
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D41
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D42
Starting value
$35.00
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$6.00
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$1.20
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$20.00
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15.0%
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80.0%
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$125
A few honest notes about how the numbers work
Every tool has to make a few simplifying assumptions, and we want you to know what they are so you can trust the numbers with confidence.
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Packaging price is set by packaging type, not by crop. Every crop packed in a box uses the same box price, and every crop packed in a bag uses the same bag price. If your real packaging cost is different for a particular crop, you are welcome to adjust that row by hand.
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Fertilizer and irrigation cost is a flat $35 per bed for every crop, rather than a cost calculated from what each crop actually uses. The Justification tab shows the itemized costs behind that $35 estimate, in case you would like to see where it comes from.
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General operating cost ($125) is charged once per bed per season, no matter how many times you replant that bed during the season.
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The grower contract share (80%) assumes you are paid 80% of the listed retail price per pound. If your own pricing arrangement looks different, please update this percentage to match your situation.
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Labor cost includes a 15% self-employment tax added on top of your base hourly wage.
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Profit margin is calculated against the full retail price per pound, not the lower amount actually received under the 80% contract share.
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If anything here does not match how your farm actually operates, please change it. This calculator is meant to work for you, not the other way around.
