Farm Produce Wholesale vs Direct Sales Calculator

Does a higher direct-sale price leave more money?

This calculator compares wholesale shipment and direct consumer sales for one already harvested batch of produce.
A higher retail price can come with extra packing, customer service, delivery and unsold-stock costs.
Wholesale may have settlement deductions while allowing a larger shipment, so both channels must start with the same available harvest.
For perishable produce, handling capacity and the selling window can matter as much as the advertised price.

Keep grade quantities and prices comparable

Match variety, size, sorting standard and quotation date before comparing prices.
Distinguish past settled shipments from future assumptions and record which terms are unconfirmed.
Each grade quantity and each unit price accepts 0–1,000,000; requested shares accept 0–100%.
Numeric fields accept commas and up to two decimal places.

Capacity, physical loss and sell-through are separate steps

1. Requested direct quantity equals each grade quantity multiplied by its requested share.
   Daily capacity measures raw produce that can be handled, including preparation and order processing, rather than successful sales.
   
2. Total direct capacity is daily kg multiplied by selling days.
   When requests exceed it, all grade requests are reduced by the same factor and the excess goes to wholesale before selling begins.
   
3. Physical loss is deducted from each channel allocation first.
   Sell-through applies only to the weight remaining after that loss, avoiding a second loss deduction from the original denominator.
   
4. Remaining stock is shown as physical loss and unsold stock after loss.
   Their sum receives the disposal charge, with zero salvage value and no later resale proceeds assumed.
   

How settlement deductions and selling costs work

Cash proceeds, own time and cash preparation

Own time is a noncash valuation, not a wage automatically paid from a bank account.
It makes the use of your or your family’s time visible when comparing extra sales work with other activities.
A channel with higher cash proceeds can have lower proceeds after time when packing and customer service take longer.
Setting hourly value to zero makes the two measures identical.

Cash to prepare is the non-fee cash cost multiplied by the prepaid percentage for each channel.
Fees are assumed withheld from settlement revenue, and own time is noncash, so neither is included in preparation cash.
This is a receipts-excluded preparation budget, not a daily cash-flow model, peak working capital or a borrowing requirement.
Check customer deposits, settlement dates, available cash and supplier payment dates separately.

Step-by-step use

1. Weigh one batch by grade and convert both buyer quotes to KRW/kg.
   Keep quality and cash-price conventions consistent and record the quotation date.
   
2. Enter the sales window and realistic daily raw handling capacity.
   Selling days must be a whole number from 0 to 365; capacity and hourly value range from 0 to 1,000,000.
   
3. Enter loss, sell-through, fees and incremental costs for each channel.
   Rates accept 0–100%, per-kg costs 0–1 million KRW, fixed cash costs 0–1 billion KRW, setup 0–10,000 hours and labor 0–600 minutes/kg.
   Obtain a quote instead of silently treating an unknown cost as zero.
   
4. Compare cash proceeds, proceeds after own time, prepaid cash and the settlement breakdown.
   Changing an input hides the old result until you calculate again.
   
5. Review allocation scenarios and sensitivity, then save the TXT plan or print it.
   Confirm the buyer’s terms before committing shipment quantities.
   

Worked example: splitting a 100kg batch equally

Assume one 100kg grade, wholesale price 3,000 KRW/kg, direct price 5,000 KRW/kg, no loss and full sell-through.
Direct capacity is 20kg/day × 3 days = 60kg, so the requested 50kg can all be handled directly.
Every price, fee and labor value in this example is fictional, not a current market quote or statutory benchmark.

Combined net cash proceeds are 320,000 KRW and proceeds after own time are 272,000 KRW.
With all non-fee cash costs paid before receipts, preparation cash is 65,000 KRW.
All-wholesale proceeds after time are 243,000 KRW, making the custom split 29,000 KRW higher under these assumptions.
Changes in sell-through or shipping expense can reduce or reverse that advantage.

Interpreting the direct-price parity threshold

The threshold is a sold-weighted average for the current grade mix.
It does not suggest charging every grade the same price and is valid only with allocation, sales volume, losses, fees and labor unchanged.
A higher price can affect orders in practice, so inspect sell-through sensitivity separately.
No threshold is available when direct sold weight is zero or a 100% fee retains no sales revenue.
A zero threshold can reflect a worse loss in the wholesale baseline rather than positive absolute profit.

Use allocation and sensitivity for practical decisions

The comparison table uses uniform direct requests of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, plus your grade-specific plan.
The star identifies the best proceeds after own time among these six candidates; this is not global optimization over every grade allocation.
A 100% request remains subject to capacity and can still include wholesale sales.
Sensitivity changes direct prices to 80% or 120% of the entered price, or changes direct sell-through by −10 or +10 percentage points, one factor at a time.
Sell-through is clipped to 0–100%, so an upward scenario can equal the base at the upper limit.

Important input and interpretation limits

• Zero selling days or zero capacity means no direct allocation.
  Blank fields are different from an explicit zero assumption and must be completed before calculation.
  
• No sales can still leave packing, disposal and fixed costs, producing negative proceeds.
  Losses are not clipped to zero, and donations, household consumption and later sales have no assumed salvage value.
  
• The model does not round parcel counts or apply minimum freight and varying daily staffing automatically.
  Convert actual batch quotes into suitable costs when the simple per-kg basis does not fit the contract.
  
• Settlement dates, returns, redelivery, taxes and subsidies are not determined automatically.
  Use confirmed cash costs and check applicable tax and contract treatment separately.
  
• A net price and a separate deduction can double count the same fee.
  Live auction prices can differ from final settlement, so reconcile the estimate against the final statement.
  

Frequently asked questions