A microgreens business can be profitable, because a tray costs a few dollars in seed and growing medium and sells for several times that, but the profit depends on two things growers underestimate: the labor in every tray, and selling everything before it wilts. In the example below, a tray of sunflower shoots costs $9.29 including 20 minutes of work and sells to restaurants for $22.50. A 40-tray week brings in about $700 after a tenth goes unsold, and leaves about $537 for roughly 20 hours of work, near $26 an hour, on a setup that costs about $3,340 to start. Below is the cost per tray for four varieties, the week worked through, the startup costs, and what makes or breaks it.
The short version
- Seed and growing medium are cheap; your time is most of the cost of a tray.
- Yield per tray decides the money: sunflower and pea earn more per tray than broccoli.
- Restaurants buy by the pound and take the volume; markets pay more per ounce but take selling time.
- Microgreens keep about a week in the fridge, often less, so grow to orders.
- Unsold trays and mold are the quiet profit killers.
- A small setup costs a few thousand dollars, mostly racks, lights and a fridge.
- TaroStack dates every harvest, sends the oldest out first, and plans what to sow from your orders. More below.
Cost and yield per tray
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, grows microgreens in 10 × 20 trays and sells to restaurants at $30 a pound. Each tray takes about 20 minutes of work all told, sowing, watering, harvesting and packing, at $20 an hour; growing medium is $0.80, water and power $0.40, and tray wear $0.10.
| Variety | Seed per tray | Days to harvest | Yield | Cost per tray | Sold at $30 a lb | Profit per tray |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower | $1.32 | 10 | 12 oz | $9.29 | $22.50 | $13.21 |
| Pea shoots | $1.65 | 12 | 11 oz | $9.62 | $20.63 | $11.01 |
| Radish | $0.79 | 8 | 9 oz | $8.76 | $16.88 | $8.12 |
| Broccoli | $1.10 | 10 | 7 oz | $9.07 | $13.13 | $4.06 |
The labor, $6.67 a tray, is most of every tray's cost, which is why yield matters so much: broccoli costs nearly the same to grow as sunflower and gives about half the weight. Sold at a market in 2 oz clamshells at $5, a sunflower tray brings $30 less 25 cents of packaging per clamshell, but a market day is hours of selling. What it costs to sell there is in cost to sell at a farmers market.
A 40-tray week
| A week | Amount |
|---|---|
| 15 sunflower, 10 pea, 10 radish and 5 broccoli trays, if every ounce sold | $778.13 |
| Sold, with a tenth unsold or lost | $700.31 |
| Seed | −$49.70 |
| Growing medium, 40 trays | −$32.00 |
| Water and power | −$16.00 |
| Tray wear | −$4.00 |
| Bags and boxes for restaurants | −$12.00 |
| Delivery, two runs | −$50.00 |
| Left for your time | $536.61 |
That's for about 20 hours: 13.3 hours growing and packing, 4 hours delivering, and 3 hours selling and doing the paperwork, so about $26 an hour, or about $2,320 a month. Pay yourself $20 an hour for the growing hours and the business itself keeps about $270 a week. How to think about profit after paying for your time is in contribution margin example.
Startup costs
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Wire racks, two | $300 |
| LED lights, ten | $300 |
| Trays, 100, with and without holes | $250 |
| First seed | $150 |
| Growing medium | $100 |
| Fan, timer, dehumidifier | $250 |
| Watering tools | $50 |
| Scale | $40 |
| Reach-in fridge, used | $600 |
| Clamshells, bags and labels | $150 |
| Product liability insurance, first year | $500 |
| Business license and permits | $150 |
| Working cash | $500 |
| Total | $3,340 |
These are example numbers; your racks, lights and fridge will set most of the total. Ask your state's agriculture or health department which licenses and food safety rules apply to growing and selling microgreens where you are.
What makes or breaks it
| Factor | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Selling everything | A tray that doesn't sell is all cost; grow to standing orders |
| The variety mix | Sunflower and pea earn about three times what broccoli does per tray |
| Minutes per tray | Five minutes saved on 40 trays is over three hours a week |
| Mold and failed trays | Every lost tray still cost its labor and seed |
| Delivery routes | Two runs a week for five restaurants beats five runs for five |
The unsold tenth in the example is about $78 a week. Cutting it in half is worth about $2,000 a year. How to track waste by reason, so you know whether it's unsold trays or mold, is in waste log template.
Where this stops working
On paper the week works. Then a restaurant drops its order on Thursday, pea shoots mold in one corner of the rack, the sunflower seed price goes up, and a chef complains the radish arrived with two days left. The spreadsheet can't say which trays were harvested when, which customer got the old ones, or how many trays to sow on Monday for next week's orders.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack treats every harvest as a dated lot, and plans the sowing from your orders.
Every harvest, dated. A harvest is a batch: it takes the seed, growing medium and trays off stock at what you paid, and puts the microgreens into a lot with its harvest date and a use-by date from the item's shelf life. Each tray's cost comes from the inputs it used, divided by what came out good, so a moldy tray shows in the cost and the losses report.
The oldest out first. Orders are picked first-expired-first-out by default. Each restaurant can carry its own rule for days of shelf life left on delivery, and a harvest too old for a customer's rule is flagged. The expiry forecast shows what will expire unsold, and what it costs, while there's still time to sell it.
And the sowing, planned. Each restaurant is a customer with its sales orders, and planning works out what to grow and when from those orders and your own sales history, so Monday's sowing matches next week's orders. The reorder list shows seed and medium in days of cover, with a red line where an order placed today would arrive too late. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so you see which varieties and which restaurants pay.
| The question | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| When was this harvested? | A marker on the box, maybe | A lot with its harvest and use-by dates |
| Which trays go out first? | The ones in front | First-expired-first-out, per customer's rule |
| How many trays to sow Monday? | A guess | Planning from orders and sales history |
| Which restaurants pay best? | Unknown | Margins by customer |
Lots, expiry, the reorder list, sales orders, and harvests as costed batches are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning is on Standard at $99. 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.