To price a 2-ounce clamshell of microgreens you add up its full cost first: the seed and growing mix by the tray by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the clamshell and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one clamshell costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a 2-ounce clamshell of sunflower shoots that costs $2.20 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $5.24, rounded up to $5.25. A tray yields about 8 ounces, and a tray that molds or comes up thin is seed and time lost. Restaurants buy by the pound or by the tray at a wholesale price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Missouri grower prices its clamshells for the market and a restaurant.
The short version
- Full cost = seed and mix a clamshell + your time + clamshell and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Cost by the tray, then divide by the clamshells it fills.
- Count the trays that fail.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each clamshell from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a clamshell's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Seed and mix | The batch's cost ÷ clamshells a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ clamshells × your hourly rate |
| Clamshell and label | Per clamshell |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the clamshells you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
What a microgreens business looks like over a year is in microgreens business plan, and packing them in how to package microgreens for sale.
An example: a 2-ounce clamshell of sunflower shoots
Big Muddy Microgreens, a made-up grower in Columbia, Missouri, gets four 2-ounce clamshells from each 10x20 tray:
| A tray | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | 1 tray | $1.20 |
| Growing mix | 1 tray | $0.90 |
| Water and power | 1 tray | $0.30 |
| A batch | $2.40 |
| A clamshell | Cost |
|---|---|
| Seed and mix, $2.40 ÷ 4 | $0.60 |
| Time, 12 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 4 | $1.00 |
| Clamshell and label | $0.35 |
| Overhead | $0.25 |
| Full cost | $2.20 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $2.20 ÷ 0.42 = $5.24, so $5.25. At $5.25 a clamshell, each leaves $2.89. It had been asking $5, which leaves $2.65, and kept $5 to match the market. A restaurant asked for 2-ounce portions at $3.50, which leaves $1.19 each, and takes 30 a week packed in bulk bags, saving the clamshell. About one tray in twelve molds; that's seed, mix and 12 minutes lost, about 15 cents on every clamshell. How a price becomes a margin is in what is a good profit margin for a food product.
Get the calculator
Download the microgreens price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's seed and mix, amounts and costs, the clamshells it makes, the hands-on minutes, the clamshell and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices a clamshell on paper. A summer of trays that mold in the heat, or a new seed price, changes the real cost of each week's harvest.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each clamshell from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each clamshell is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.
Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a clamshell costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Trays that fail | Not counted | Waste with a reason |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed at tax time | A price-creep report |
| Whether wholesale still pays | A guess | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.