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Ingredient prices

Tomatoes price per pound

Field-grown tomatoes, US city average. The most seasonal item on this list, with a peak-to-trough swing that can double a dish's produce cost between summer and winter.

Also known as field grown tomatoes or fresh tomatoes.

September 2026 · US city average

$2.00

per lb

1 month
−7.0%
3 months
−25.5%
12 months
+11.7%

2024-01 to 2026-07

2.691.71Jan '24Jul '26

What the last 12 months did to a plate

Representative portions and volumes — substitute your own. The point isn't the exact figure, it's that a +11.7% move on one ingredient turns into a specific annual number on a specific dish, and that number is usually larger than it feels.

DishUsesCost todayChange per platePer year at 412/wk
Burger garnish (2 slices)2 oz$0.25+$0.03+$562.38
Caprese6 oz$0.75+$0.08+$286.65
Tomato salad8 oz$1.00+$0.11+$300.30
Pico de gallo (per portion)2.5 oz$0.31+$0.03+$324.19

Volumes differ per row — each is a plausible weekly count for that dish. Computed from the BLS series above; your supplier price will differ by region, volume and grade.

What moves this price

  • Season and growing region. Supply shifts between domestic regions and imports through the year; the handover periods are where prices spike.
  • Weather events. A single storm in a concentrated growing region moves the national average for weeks.
  • Field vs. greenhouse. Greenhouse production is steadier and more expensive; a menu built on one has a different cost curve than one built on the other.

Buying notes

  • This is the strongest case on the list for a seasonality index. Pricing a tomato-forward dish off a July cost guarantees a bad February, and rotating the dish seasonally is usually a better answer than pricing for the average.
  • Canned is not a substitute for fresh in a caprese and is entirely a substitute in a sauce. Splitting your tomato spend into those two uses lets you buy each on its own logic.
  • Storage matters more than for most produce: refrigeration damages texture and flavour, so ordering more often in smaller quantities genuinely beats holding a larger par.

This is the national average. Yours is the one that matters.

Marji reads your actual supplier invoices, so you see what you paid — and which of your dishes crossed their margin target because of it. The national number is only useful for telling a market move apart from a vendor move.

Track my real costs free →See it in the index

Related terms