Produce Market Revenue Benchmark

Average Produce Market Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every fruit and vegetable retailer with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of markets gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,710,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $4.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 2,675 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,710,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Fruit and Vegetable Retailers, NAICS 445230. The category covers stores retailing fresh fruits and vegetables. Grocery stores and farm stands without a store establishment are counted elsewhere. Classified separately in group 4452: 445240 Meat Retailers; 445250 Fish and Seafood Retailers; 445291 Baked Goods Retailers, and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 45.8 to 52.5 percent. This benchmark covers Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, as a whole, and this category accounts for 2,675 of the 23,982 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Fruit and Vegetable Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 12.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because produce bought at wholesale is the main cost and a small crew can run the floor and the register.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods or spoilage, so nothing on this page shows what a market keeps after paying growers and wholesalers.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Fruit and Vegetable Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 7.1 people, and the industry averaged 1.0 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a buyer, stockers and checkout staff.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

• Fruit Shopping Checklist
• Grocery Store Benchmark
• Fish and Seafood Market Benchmark
• Butcher Shop Benchmark
• All Business Benchmarks

Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Produce Market: what daily buying and spoilage do to a fresh food average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How much of the stock is thrown away? Produce loses value by the day, and what is not sold in time is discounted, composted or discarded. How much of each purchase turns into waste is the number a produce buyer lives by, and it appears nowhere in a receipts figure.
• Where does the produce come from? Buying at a wholesale terminal before dawn, contracting with local farms or growing on the owner's own land produce different costs, quality claims and seasons. The sourcing model shapes both revenue and margin.
• How much is seasonal? Summer fruit and local harvests bring peaks in traffic and price swings in supply, while winter depends on imports at different margins. An annual average smooths a year that a buyer feels week by week.
• Who competes for the basket? Supermarkets, warehouse clubs, farmers' markets and delivery services all sell produce, usually with more convenience. A market competes on freshness, ethnic and specialty ranges and price per pound, and each neighborhood weighs those differently.
• What else does the store sell? Many markets add dairy, eggs, bread and pantry goods to raise the average ticket, and some run a deli or juice bar. The mix behind a market's receipts ranges from pure produce to a small grocery.
• What does refrigeration cost? Coolers, display cases and the energy behind them are fixed costs that run whether sales are strong or weak, and a breakdown can spoil a week of stock. Equipment and energy sit outside a revenue benchmark.