Price spreads explained: What USDA’s 2024 farm-to-retail data means for specialty crop growers

The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) just published updated farm-to-retail price spread reports, and there is some interesting data to sort through as it pertains to U.S. specialty crops.

Farm-to-retail price spreads measure the difference between what farmers receive at the farm gate and what consumers pay at retail. That gap reflects overhead costs such as packing, transportation, labor, storage and retail margins.

For example, imagine you are at the local grocery store: you only have one dollar, and you want to buy a single Cosmic Crisp apple. Sure, the store may be charging $1 per apple at the checkout line, but every single cent from that dollar spent doesn’t end up directly in the apple growers’ bank account.

Specifically, if we’re looking at USDA-ERS’s 2024 farm-to-retail price spread data, the average farm value for U.S. apples two years ago was $0.36 per pound. So, the farmer receives $0.36, while the rest of the retail price from that pound of apples covers logistics, handling, shrink, store labor and retail margins — it’s not 100% profit for the retailer. In 2024, the average retail price for a single unit (one pound) of apples averaged just over $1.70. That $1.34 price spread feels fairly significant, and seeing it may prompt some apple growers to look for ways to capture more value through direct marketing, branding or creating more value-added products on farm rather than relying solely on wholesale pricing

Conversely, the retailer might look at that apple price spread chart above and decide it also needs to raise its prices for apples, because $1.34 might not be sufficient from store management’s perspective in getting that pound of apples from the orchard into the customer’s hands. 

Grapes are another specialty crop that USDA-ERS tracks both at the farm gate and at retail. In 2024, the average farm value of a pound of grocery store-bought grapes was $1.06, while the average retail value was $2.31.

On the vegetable side of things, carrots have a relatively low farm-to-retail spread, with the grower taking home an average of $0.88 per unit of carrots, while the store charged $1.09 on average for that same unit of carrots. That low price spread ($0.21) might sound appealing to a farmer who wants to capture and hold onto as much of the consumer spend on its crops as possible.

Broccoli, meanwhile, tells a different story as a vegetable with a rather sizable price spread. On average, farmers took home $0.89 per retail package in 2024, while the stores charged $2.44 for that same package of fresh broccoli. The price spread is $1.55. Again, just like with apples, a farmer may look at that spread and decide to raise wholesale prices on broccoli, since it seems the retailer is capturing more of the value from the crop itself, minus expenses.

Strawberries appear to be a valuable crop for both farmer and retailer. Strawberry farmers in 2024 received an average price of $1.55 for a single pound of fresh strawberries — which is the highest average price since 2008 — while retailers charged an average of $3.09 per unit at the checkout line. That’s a rather large $1.54 spread, even with the average retail price down $0.13 from 2023’s all-time high.

There’s a host of other specialty crops USDA-ERS tracks and reports farm-to-retail price spreads on, and you can check all of those out here along with interactive, downloadable charts.

Key grower takeaways from 2024 USDA-ERS price spread data

• Only a fraction of the retail dollar returns to the farm gate.

• Most of the spread reflects post-harvest handling, transportation and retail costs.


• Retail price increases (aka inflation) don’t automatically translate into higher farm income.


• Capturing more value often means controlling more of the chain — packing, branding, direct sales, CSA programs or creating novel, value-added products on the farm.