Grain
Rice · Thailand 5%
$0.482
USD / kg equivalent
Original: $482.0 / metric tonne. Named export grade.
From the garden to the stall
Know what you're
paying for.
A sack of rice. Eggs from your own hens. A shawl made by hand. Bring a little clarity to the market—with the same units, a useful question, and respect for the work behind the price.
YOUR LOCAL QUOTE COMES FIRSTCompare like qualityWeigh without packagingInclude the maker's timeWorld data: September 2026 averages
01 / Your market desk
Two stalls.
One fair comparison.
Enter prices in the same currency. These starter numbers are practice quotes, not today's prices. Change them to what a seller actually tells you.
STALL AA larger bundle?
After trimming, breakage or spoilage.
STALL BA smaller bundle?
100% means you expect to use it all.
PRICE PER USABLE UNIT
This compares price and your entered usable share. Quality, taste, trust, travel and how much cash you have also matter. Ask to see the scale at zero; use net product weight, not bag or container weight. A piece has no standard weight.
Translate a quote into USD (optional)
No exchange rate supplied. USD equivalents stay unknown.
Local price ÷ local units per USD = USD. Use the direction written above. A quoted mid-market rate can differ from what you receive after fees; this lesson does not fetch rates.
02 / A window on the world
The crop has a price.
The journey adds another.
World Bank benchmarks show a named commodity at an international stage of trade. Your local stall pays for transport, processing, losses and the seller's work too.
SEPTEMBER 2026 MONTHLY AVERAGES · PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2, 2026 · SELECTED SIX SERIES
Grain
Wheat · U.S. HRW
$0.347
USD / kg equivalent
Original: $347.0 / metric tonne. Flour includes milling.
Grain
Maize
$0.2396
USD / kg equivalent
Original: $239.6 / metric tonne. Fresh corn is different.
Crop
Coffee · Arabica
$7.26
USD / kg
Green coffee benchmark. Roasting adds costs.
Fibre
Cotton
$2.10
USD / kg
Raw fibre. Fabric and a dress are different products.
Crop
Cocoa
$5.92
USD / kg
Cocoa benchmark. Chocolate includes processing.
Source: World Bank October 2026 Pink Sheet, September monthly column. Dataset attribution / CC BY 4.0. Metric tonne prices divided by 1,000 to show USD/kg. This is a fixed teaching snapshot, not today's market.
03 / Cloth carries someone's time
A handmade thing
is more than its weight.
Two U.S. retail examples, checked October 5, 2026. Different makers, materials and markets—not an average, a valuation or a promise about your work.
HAND-SEWN · MADE IN ALABAMA
Alabama Chanin · Heron Dress
$1,388 USD / dress
Made-to-order organic cotton. The maker describes hand-sewn construction in Florence, Alabama. Weight and working hours are not published.
Read the maker's listing ↗HAND-LOOMED · MADE IN INDIA
Sajad · Kashmiri Diamonds in Navy
$39.99 USD / shawl
A 100% wool shawl offered through Smithsonian's U.S. marketplace. Same SKU 230098: merchant listings report about 90 g / 0.2 lb. That weight is approximate.
Smithsonian price ↗ · NOVICA weight ↗THE WEIGHT EXERCISEExplain the ratio
Approximate merchant weight, not a new measurement.
Price ÷ finished weight gives a comparison ratio. It does not tell you the value of raw wool or cotton. Skill, design, preparation, finishing, reputation and distribution contribute to a finished item's price. Never infer a maker's pay from a shop price.
04 / Homegrown. Home-raised. Handcrafted.
Count the harvest.
Count your hours too.
Use a batch you actually grow, raise or make. Separate cash inputs from an allowance for your own time. All presets are fictional practice numbers in your chosen currency.
- Record your inputs.Seeds, feed, yarn, water, energy, packaging, transport and a fair share of equipment costs. A gift is different from a repeatable zero-cost supply.
- Measure what can be sold or used.Gross harvest minus spoiled produce, broken eggs or rejects. For yarn from a fleece, account for cleaning and processing losses.
- Give time its own line.Hours × your chosen hourly pay. Change the assumption; then see how the cost changes.
- Ask what is missing.Season, quality, storage, animal care, taxes, unsold stock and the buyer's budget. A calculated cost is a starting point for discussion.
For home-raised livestock, live weight, carcass weight and edible product are different stages. Compare the same stage; enter your own measured usable share. This is a cost exercise, not animal-care guidance.
Cost per usable unit = (inputs + other costs + hours × pay) ÷ usable output. Excludes profit and any costs you have not entered.
05 / Leave with something useful
One market note.
Three better questions.
Finish by checking your reasoning. Your result is one dated comparison, a cost estimate and a question to ask at the next stall.
60 for 2 kg or 35 for 1 kg. Same quality, all usable. Which has the lower price per kg?
12 eggs cost 36. Half a dozen costs 21. What do you compare?
A shawl has a high price per kg. What does that tell you?
0 OF 3 QUESTIONS CHECKED
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The lesson in five steps
- Choose the same product, quality and currency.
- Convert bundles to kg or pieces. 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg; 1 ordinary ounce = 0.028349523125 kg; 1 dozen = 12 pieces.
- Adjust for waste: price ÷ usable amount. Ask to see net weight.
- For your own output, record inputs, hours and usable yield. Compare that cost with a local quote.
- Keep the quote's date and origin. Distinguish an international benchmark, a retail asking price and your own observation.
Try it without the calculator
Rice: 60 ÷ 2 = 30/kg; 35 ÷ 1 = 35/kg. The larger bundle is about 14.3% lower per kg relative to 35.
Tomatoes: a 20-unit bag weighing 2 kg with 75% usable produce costs 20 ÷ 1.5 = 13.33 per usable kg. A 12-unit, 1 kg fully usable bag costs 12 per usable kg.
Garden example: 20 inputs + 5 other costs + (3 hours × 5) = 40. At 10 kg gross and 80% usable, output is 8 kg; cost including time is 5/kg. Cash inputs alone cost 3.125/kg.
Sources, dates & what we changed
This original public lesson was authored by the BioInfo AI team from Jonathan's market-learning brief and the structure of a Kimi-built world commodities monitor. That monitor's private workbook, source scripts, API credentials and market signals are not included. This edition independently checks selected public observations and adds unit, craft and growing exercises.
World Bank Pink Sheet, October 2, 2026: six September monthly values. USD/metric tonne converted to USD/kg; snapshot fixed in v1.0.2. World Bank dataset (CC BY 4.0); original terms retained, no endorsement implied.
NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C: mass conversion factors. Ordinary ounces are used here; a troy ounce used for precious metals is different.
Maker listings linked above are single asking-price examples checked October 5, 2026. Price and availability can change. No product photographs, full descriptions or private source files are republished. A blank garment weight stays unknown.
Growing costs are your inputs and fictional exercises, not observed farm budgets. Penn State Extension: small-scale egg production provides further reading.
Version 1.0.2 · One free LESSON · Original lesson/code: BioInfo Solutions, free use and adaptation under the supplied license. World Bank data retains its CC BY 4.0 terms.
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