Is it cheaper to buy from a farmer? We give you all the keys

Many people have the misconception that if you buy from the farmer , the products will be cheaper , but this is not always the case and I am going to explain why.

We are starting from a premise: The prices at which we offer our fruit are fair prices for the farmer, so that he has a minimum profit and that we can continue with our harvests. We are not going to get rich at anyone's expense.

There are fewer and fewer people who want to dedicate themselves to the field and it is not surprising. The work is very difficult , the prices at which large companies buy the fruit do not even cover costs and most of the time you lose money in the harvests either because we cannot sell all the fruit or we have lost part of it.

But returning to the topic that brought you here, why, on certain occasions, isn't it cheaper to buy from a farmer?
There are several aspects that make the price at which you buy the fruit seem more expensive:

Fruit picking

The harvesting work is completely manual , we do not have machinery that is responsible for selecting the fruit and packaging it, everything is done by hand to guarantee the best quality , we are the ones who collect the fruit, put it in boxes, weigh them and We label them, a completely personalized job for each client.

When carrying out such meticulous work, the number of boxes we can make is limited . Remember, here it is not quantity, but quality.
In large companies, all this is done with production chains that pack and package the fruit, all automated, so the number of boxes they can make is much higher.

Storage and post-harvest products

Our fruit is not stored in large chambers nor do we add post-harvest products to make them last longer, this means that we suffer losses of fruit when it is not sold. This also means more work and expense for us, since we have to go to our fields every day to collect your fruit.

A supermarket does not have this problem, they harvest the green fruit, store it for as long as it takes and thus do not have losses, they always sell everything they have even if it takes months.

Product delivery

This is one of the aspects that makes the product more expensive . Having the fruit at your doorstep freshly picked from the tree and within a maximum of 24 hours guarantees the greatest freshness, but it comes at a cost. All this influences and more so when the shipping price depends on the weight , the immediacy as well as the number of shipments made periodically. As we do not move large quantities in each shipment (unlike a supermarket), we do not have volume discounts.

And we haven't talked about cardboard . A product that has suffered a large increase in price in recent years. Each point is an extra price for us.

Customer service and online store

Last but not least is customer service.
Having a person at your disposal all the time, who can resolve your doubts or problems with the shipment immediately, a person to turn to in any circumstance, is also a service that we have to pay for , because with the harvest, we do not have any left time as farmers to dedicate all the time our clients need.

As for the online store, having it up and running also has its costs and they are not few. In addition to paying for web hosting, hosting, the payment gateway, etc., you must add the billing program, a manager and the freelancer.

Yes, as you can see, it's non-stop but I don't want to bore you but I can continue with the amount of expenses involved in selling my fruit online.

It is clear that if you buy at a village market from a local farmer, several of these costs would be eliminated and the price would be lower. With all our hearts, we encourage you to do so, to buy local products and support producers in your area.

But if what you want is quality fruit from the same farmers, freshly picked , at the door of your house, with an express service so that it maintains all the flavor without post-harvest products or chambers, and a completely personalized and guaranteed purchase order in Campos Del Abuelo .

I hope you have understood the situation we face every day and the reasons why our products are not as cheap as you originally imagined.

We appreciate the support of our project.