In frozen produce, the same product has two prices running in parallel all season, and buyers who only watch one of them are watching half the market.
Contracted volume is agreed before harvest, priced against an expected crop, and scheduled across the year. Spot is whatever is left after commitments, priced against what actually came in.
The gap between them is not a discount or a penalty. It reflects who carried the risk. A contract buyer takes on volume certainty and gives up the chance to chase a low spot market. A spot buyer keeps flexibility and takes on availability risk in a short crop.
The failure mode is the buyer who contracts a base volume but treats it as a ceiling, then discovers in a tight year that spot is unavailable at any sensible price, and that the contracted tonnage was the only real supply.
Allocation usually happens quietly. When a crop comes in short, suppliers serve the customers who committed first and communicated honestly.
At NewsourceFoods, we quote contracted volume with a schedule and a tolerance band so both sides know what is committed, and we keep spot available for trial orders rather than treating it as the main channel. We supply across the frozen range with OEM and ODM support under ISO, HACCP, BRC, IFS, KOSHER, and HALAL.
If most of your buying is spot, ask what a base contract would look like for next season. It costs nothing to compare.
NewsourceFoods ｜ yulian@qdnewsource.com ｜ Tel / WhatsApp: 0086 13687623173
