Organic produce prices

[maxmillan]

Capers Market sell organic brocolli for $4.99 a pound. Kin's had a sale last week and their broccoli sold for $1.99 a pound. Don't know about Choices but the last time I bought there it was much more than Kin's. I'm sure Whole Foods is more expensive as well.

Kin's broccoli, BTW, is from USA as are the rest of the stores.

I notice prices of other organic produce varies GREATLY between the larger organic stores and smaller grocers.

Why is this?

[stovetop]

Organic Produce and products from the Natural food industry or organic processed food is normally on the higher side, they choose to go for the high end market, plus there is a cost associated with the tracking and certification of all that food, plus the low Canadian dollar but hey we got a strong dollar theses days so we will knock that one out of the group, so back to the cost of being organic, lets just stick with the certification cost lawyers and legal documents, all this stuff cost money. Now that we got that out of the way lets get back to the intangibles, produce is like the stock market, someone is selling and someone is buying, if I want to buy lots I get a better deal, if you have lots and there is no one who is buying you will drop your prices, it is totally supply and demand.

A few years back, I caught a little loop whole in the produce business. I will tell you straight out I buy non organic produce or if the price is right I will buy it but normally you can not make a living on produce that cost as much as organic stuff, common 4.00 lb is outrages, it is just broccoli.

The California lettuce industry got hit very hard with a white fly, it devastated the market. One thing though is the organic industry is mostly in Northern California, it missed the whole problem completely, they had lots of product on the market, its price went down, I do not think they were aware of what was going down in the reg produce business, but lettuce went through the roof; all of a sudden organic lettuce was cheaper. Guess what I did, I had all this cheap lettuce and it was also so good.

These days they seem to pay attention cause I do not see that much discrepancy between product any more, they are on price change very quickly, no deals any more.

The more a store buys the cheaper it can be, so a sale is going on and I buy a skid of broccoli, I will get a good deal. Right now in reg produce broccoli is cheap, a few weeks back it was very expensive, the amount of broccoli on the market was low so price was high.

Capers is a American chain, they have central purchasing so they probably have the same price year round, I know Safeway shows not much variations through the year, it is the middle of summer and so much of there produce is expensive.

Hell Broadway produce and Normands produce is have the price of Safeway, they have very expensive produce.

Look around Broadway has a organic place, some stuff is cheap, it is good to buy local, and our potatoes are good quality as good as any organic stuff from the states.

Carrots, onions, garlic, yams, turnips, squash, cabbage and all that other root stuff. We can get Canadian and local stuff into the winter so there is no reason to buy American. I would buy Washington State over California.

The Irony of buying organic from the USA is when you can have the product in season here, is the fuel takes more energy to come to Canada and has more damage to the environment then if you just bought local stuff. Canadian food is still very good quality, there are so many farms growing great food. Why do we need organic from California when we can get the same thing here?

Shop around, after time you will see who has the best prices. Always check quality and freshness, fresh looking produce means they are busy which means less waste and maybe cheaper prices.

steve

[*Deborah*]

Conventional wisdom is also that you have more bugs and whatnot with organic, not using chemical pesticides etc., so you end up charging more for the produce that comes out nice and healthy and pretty by the end of the season.

[hopkin]

i consider excellent produce, even at $2-4 a pound, to be very inexpensive. thats just the value i put on it. purchasing produce based only on price is a big mistake. if you judge the value recieved for price paid you pay - organic produce can often be 'cheaper'.

in season, organic broccoli is certainly one good example of an organic produce that is not much more, if not the same price, as conventional. (regularly between $1-2.5/lb. at capers). its also a better, tastier variety than the usual stuff found in chinese produce stores.

this all said, I wouldn't pay $5/lb. right now is a very bad time to buy broccoli. eat roots and leafy greens.

on caper's produce: i have found it to be top quality and not overpriced. they care for thier produce very well, 90% is organic and lots of local which also 'adds value' for me. great roots and greens especially.

[hopkin]

Capers Market sell organic brocolli for $4.99 a pound.  Kin's had a sale last week and their broccoli sold for $1.99 a pound.

not sure I understood your post correctly, is Kin's organic also?

If so, I'm not sure why capers is so expensive right now.

[Ling]

Capers Market sell organic brocolli for $4.99 a pound.  Kin's had a sale last week and their broccoli sold for $1.99 a pound.

not sure I understood your post correctly, is Kin's organic also?

If so, I'm not sure why capers is so expensive right now.

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Kin's on Davie has section of their store devoted to organic produce called "Energie" or something close to that.

[annanstee]

The Kins at City Square also has the Organic produce. Energie is a small company that sells out of select Kin's stores, I understand. The prices are extremely reasonable- and they have great specials i.e. organic bananas for 29 cents a pound.

Ann

[Ling]

There's also an Energie location at Oakridge mall. I only buy organic when the prices are comparable to the regular produce, which pretty much limits me to Energie. I could never afford brocolli for 5 dollars a pound...but even if I could, I don't think I would be willing to pay that much.

[Robin Shuster]

I run a farmers' market in Washington DC and I agree -- If forced to choose, I chose Local over Organic for vegetables and fruit (although I prefer that the local be raised without pesticides) Fruits and veg lose their nutrients with every hour and mile they travel from the fields -- and a 5 day old Organic lettuce from California is not going to have the taste of a local lettuce that is fresh

But meat is different. I want pasteured fed and finished meats and if I cannot find them locally, I am happy to buy them from California.

Robin

The Irony of buying organic from the USA is when you can have the product in season here, is the fuel takes more energy to come to Canada and has more damage to the environment then if you just bought local stuff. Canadian food is still very good quality, there are so many farms growing great food. Why do we need organic from California when we can get the same thing here?

Shop around, after time you will see who has the best prices. Always check quality and freshness, fresh looking produce means they are busy which means less waste and maybe cheaper prices.

steve

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[maxmillan]

I understand the concept of demand and supply. My question is, "How can a smaller scale store like Kin's sell some organic produce at a cheaper price than the larger Capers?"

Certainly buying from Washington versus California cannot be the reason for the big difference in price (ie. $4.99/lb v/s $1.99/lb?)

[peppyre]

Kin's is no longer a small scale store. They seem to have a location in every region of the Lower Mainland now and they seem to be doing a booming business at every location. The pricing is different at each one and I haven't quite figured out why that is. You could go to 3 different Kin's on the same afternoon and find wildly different pricing. Anyone know why that is?

[Daddy-A]

Kin's is no longer a small scale store.  They seem to have a location in every region of the Lower Mainland now and they seem to be doing a booming business at every location.  The pricing is different at each one and I haven't quite figured out why that is.  You could go to 3 different Kin's on the same afternoon and find wildly different pricing.  Anyone know why that is?

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My suspicion? Location location location. Just like the Safeway in Kits is higher priced than the one I used to frequent in North Burnaby.

A.

[stovetop]

I understand the concept of demand and supply. My question is, "How can a smaller scale store like Kin's sell some organic produce at a cheaper price than the larger Capers?"

Kins produce department is probably buying more then Capers produce department, also Capers is an American company, I have been in capers many times in the middle of summer and have generally found that there is only about 50 % Can stuff, they could have almost 100 % when the season is happening.

Carrots, potatoes, onions, squash ect, could almost be year round, if they where realy concerned about the environment then they would get theses products in.

They do the best job they can but their main supply line is American just like Safeway.

Also capers customer will pay and Kins will not, capers sells more convenience foods and bulk, but kins overall produce sales is more and their waste is probably way less these are all factors which enable them to sell less. If you sell for less you sell more and have less waste thus you make more.

steve