Also called: Produce Category Buyer, Terminal Market Produce Buyer
Buys fruits and vegetables for grocery chains, restaurants or wholesalers, often at dawn, judging quality and price before it all goes bad.
At 4 a.m. you walk a terminal market tasting strawberries, checking lettuce for brown edges and haggling over pallets of avocados. Back at the office you watch weather in Mexico and California because a freeze could double tomato prices. Everything you buy has a clock ticking.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in agribusiness, food marketing or business; many start in a produce department.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Agricultural Business, Food Marketing, Business Administration.
Growing about average. Steady; grocery and food service always need produce.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Software forecasts demand and prices; tasting, judging quality and haggling with growers stays human.
Classes: Agriculture CTE class, Spanish, Business math.
Official data: O*NET occupation 13-1022.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.