Produce Brokers

by Nikki Goodson | More from this Blogger

24 Mar 2008 05:57 PM

I recently started going to The City Market in Kansas City. Once or twice a week, they do have a farmer's market there, but every single day of every single week (year-round!), they have the "city market." Now, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but as I understand it, the vendors are produce brokers, meaning they buy wholesale and supply the grocery stores. I don't know much about it; all I know is that the produce is DIRT CHEAP! Of course, when I first went, I had to keep reminding myself that most of the produce is conventional, so I have to take that into consideration before I drool all over the cheap prices. The more expensive price I pay at Whole Foods is partly for being organic.

But can you imagine my delight this month when I began seeing some organic produce there? I found organic bananas, organic apples, and organic raisins. Not a ton, but I am expecting more to come as we get further into the growing season. I found 3 lb bags of organic Braeburn apples for $2. That is about $.66/lb! The cheapest that I think I've EVER found organic apples before was about $.99/lb - if I found them at that price I would stock up like crazy!

I also found Earthbound Farms organic raisins, 14 of those little ½ oz boxes for $.75 - or, at one stand, you could buy 3 bags for $2. That was about half the price of the organic raisins that I had just purchased at Whole Foods! So... I stocked up, of course!

And the organic bananas were priced at $.50/lb, but I got them for $.35/lb by buying a whole case. Read more about that here.

Living in an area with all four seasons (and thus, limited fresh local produce in the winter), the City Market has been a great discovery for me. I believe that the fresh local produce that I will be able to find at farmers markets in the summer will be of higher quality than what the produce brokers provide, but until there is more of that around, I am pleased to get the same quality products that I can buy at Whole Foods at a much cheaper price! I encourage you to do the research to see if you have produce brokers or some kind of City Market near you!

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Tip: Buy produce in bulk

Your Local Farmer is a Home-Based Business

Learn more about Nikki Goodson

Nikki Goodson started hard-core couponing in August of 2004. She is a member of several deals sites and has previously been a Deals moderator for Deals.Families.com.

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Nikki Goodson (15905) 07 Apr 2008 09:34 PM

Okay, so I realized that I had the order of things backwards! I now believe that the KC City Market vendors get the produce from the supermarkets. Somebody explained to me that the grocers buy all the produce when it's still very unripe, but if it seems that it will all be too ripe before they can sell it all, then they'll sell it to the vendors at the City Market.

So, I'm a little sad to know that the produce was picked so early and sat for so long. Clearly, farmers markets are the best way to go for freshness (which of course impacts both taste AND nutritive value!)