Why pomelo is bought by count, not by weight
Two offers, same price per kilo, same origin, same grade. One of them will cost you money on the shelf, and the invoice will not show you which.
The arithmetic that gets missed
Pomelo sells at retail by the piece, not by the kilo. Your shelf price is per fruit. Your cost, if you bought by loose weight, is per kilo. Between those two units sits the fruit size — and if the size is not fixed, your margin per unit is not fixed either.
Take a 10 kg carton. At 1.5 kg average you receive about six or seven fruits. At 2.5 kg average you receive four. Same carton, same weight, same invoice — but one gives you six units to sell and the other gives you four. Unless your shelf price rises by half on the larger fruit, and it usually does not, the second carton earns you materially less.
Packing by count moves the risk
When a carton is specified as five pieces, 10 kg net, 1.8–2.2 kg each, three things become true before the container leaves:
- You know how many saleable units are in the load
- You know your cost per unit, not just per kilo
- Size variation becomes the supplier's problem at packing, where it can be sorted, rather than yours at the shelf, where it cannot
The three counts, and what each is for
| Count | Fruit weight | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| 4 pcs | 2.2 – 2.8 kg | Premium retail and gift packs. Large fruit reads as a present |
| 5 pcs | 1.8 – 2.2 kg | Supermarket standard. Fits most shelf price points |
| 6 pcs | 1.5 – 1.8 kg | Volume retail and wholesale. Lowest cost per unit |
Notice the net weight is 10 kg in all three. You are not buying more or less fruit — you are deciding how it is divided, and therefore what each division sells for.
What to specify when you order
- The count, and the acceptable weight range per fruit
- Presentation — loose, foam-netted, or individually labelled
- What happens to out-of-range fruit. A good supplier packs it into a different count rather than pushing it into yours
One warning
A tight count specification only means something if the supplier grades honestly. Ask what proportion of a typical harvest falls into each count. A supplier who says every fruit fits your preferred size is telling you they will pad it when the season runs thin — which is exactly when you will not notice.
Where we stand. We pack green-skin pomelo to your count from our own groves in Bến Tre, available year-round, with brix and appearance specified in writing before the first container.
Related
- Four ways to cut a young coconut — format decides channel there too
- Eleven questions to ask a Vietnamese fruit supplier