People looking to add more leafy green vegetables into their diets may be looking into spinach. Spinach is a versatile vegetable that can easily be served as the main ingredient or mixed into various dishes.
If you have been wanting to buy spinach lately but noticed the new cost, you may be wondering why spinach is so expensive. I did some digging, and here is what I learned!
Why Is Spinach So Expensive?
Spinach can become expensive depending on the conditions when the spinach grew, such as heavy rainfall or droughts. Moreover, other input costs like fuel prices and fertilizer can affect how much spinach will be. Plus, spinach can be more expensive if you buy organic spinach or buy your spinach at a farmer’s market.
Do you want to find out more reasons why spinach is so expensive and what alternatives you can use instead of spinach? Keep reading!
1. Droughts
Usually, one of the main reasons that produce like spinach becomes expensive is because of droughts.
That said, as our world experiences more climate changes, areas that normally have a lot of water sources are experiencing droughts.
Therefore, a big reason why drought impacts spinach prices is that the cost of water will go up whenever there is a drought.
Further, since water will be seen as a more sacred commodity, it will be more expensive to encourage people to preserve water.
However, most farmers often struggle when there is a drought.
For example, these farmers have several acres of land that they need to regularly water to help their crops grow because they would perish without water.
Typically, farmers will not simply let their crops go to waste, so they will continue to use water when they can.
Therefore, to make up for the added costs of water, farmers need to charge more for their produce, like spinach.
2. Heavy Rains
While droughts can impact the growth of spinach, heavy rains may not be great for spinach either.
Further, whenever there are harsh rains or floods, the excess water makes it hard for farmers to plant crops.
Moreover, certain situations like flash floods can ruin crops that are currently growing or ready to harvest.
For instance, a flash flood can push all the plants out from the roots, pushing the plants far from the farm.
Additionally, overwatering from heavy rains or floods can limit or cut off oxygen from the plant’s roots, killing the plant.
Plus, excessive water in the soil can make the plant’s roots decay, and the damage can be irreversible.
When these rains and floods occur, farmers can only try to salvage whatever crops they can save.
So, since there will not be many crops like spinach available, farmers will often have to make their spinach more expensive to make up for their losses.
3. Fuel Prices
Fuel is a huge part of what keeps a farm running. Moreover, fuel is needed for the transportation of farm goods.
When the cost of fuel goes up, the prices of vegetables like spinach will likely rise. Typically, farmers have to charge more for their products to make up for fuel costs.
4. Fertilizer Prices
Fertilizer is essential to growing vegetables healthily and quickly.
However, the price of fertilizer is hard for farmers to keep up with, which is why farmers tend to charge more for their vegetables.
Also, most governments have very strict laws about what types of fertilizer farmers can use. Therefore, farmers often need to buy high-quality fertilizers to be able to sell their produce.
However, buying good fertilizer is not easy, especially since the price of fertilizers keeps rising. For instance, the cost of fertilizer rose by 7.9% in 2021, creating a new all-time high price.
Usually, fertilizers cost a lot of money because of the supply and demand.
Lastly, more people need fertilizer for their farms, gardens, and more, making it harder for fertilizer suppliers to keep up.
5. You Bought Spinach At The Farmer’s Market
If you notice that spinach has a huge price tag, there is a chance that you could have bought your spinach at the farmer’s market.
Generally, farmer’s markets are much more expensive than regular grocery stores.
Generally, people who sell goods at the farmer’s market are small-scale farmers or source their goods from small farms.
That said, these small farmers do not have the same capacity to grow more food to sell more food, so the costs of their goods will be more than a large-scale farmer.
Usually, large-scale farmers sell their goods to major stores like supermarkets.
Therefore, since large-scale farmers have a lot of space to grow more produce, they can get away with selling their goods at a lower price.
Moreover, the spinach you buy at the farmer’s market is likely organic and has other costs that you do not see.
For instance, the input costs for certification, seeds, and fertilizer can jack up the price of spinach at a farmer’s market.
What Can I Use Instead Of Spinach?
If you want a cheaper alternative to spinach, you can use cabbage in most recipes. That said, cabbage is another leafy vegetable and is usually more affordable than spinach.
However, you will likely need to cook cabbage more than spinach since cabbage does not wilt as easily as spinach.
Therefore, you may need to use less cabbage when substituting spinach in most recipes, especially if you need to cook the vegetable.
To learn more, you can also read our posts on why mushrooms are so expensive, why pomegranates are so expensive, and why olives are so expensive.
Conclusion
Usually, spinach is expensive because of the conditions that the spinach has to grow in.
For instance, excessive rainfall, floods, and droughts can make it hard for farmers to grow spinach, making farmers have to increase the price of spinach.
Moreover, other input costs can make spinach expensive, including fertilizer and fuel prices.
Additionally, purchasing spinach that is organic or from the farmer’s market tends to be more costly.