US average price for a pound of field-grown tomatoes: $1.98/lb for August 2026 (BLS, the public shelf-price survey behind the official CPI, published monthly with the CPI), +2.7% vs a year ago. The freshest public line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for fresh fruits and vegetables (the whole category, not tomatoes alone): 60.9 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (+1.0% against the same weeks last year). Next BLS update: October 14, 2026, with the September 2026 CPI.
Retail tomato prices rose 2.7% over the past year to $1.98/lb (August 2026), and the price is +6% versus five years ago, and 26% below the record high of $2.69/lb set in April 2026. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for fresh fruits and vegetables (the whole category, not tomatoes alone), rose 0.3% from August 2026 to September 2026 and sits +1.0% against the same weeks last year.
This page charts the full history of the BLS price back to 2007; and Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for fresh fruits and vegetables (the whole category, not tomatoes alone). The Build-Your-Cart tool combines these staples into your personal basket, the farm-to-shelf page shows where the retail dollar goes, and the full price history is downloadable as JSON and CSV from the series page.
The US city average is $1.98/lb for August 2026, from the BLS Average Price survey — the shelf prices behind the CPI — +2.7% from a year earlier. The fresher line is Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for fresh fruits and vegetables (the whole category, not tomatoes alone): 60.9 for September 2026, a monthly index built from USDA's weekly grocery feature reports (+1.0% against the same weeks last year). The BLS figure is monthly, so "today" on this page means the latest published month, not this morning.
Retail tomato prices rose 2.7% over the past year to $1.98/lb (August 2026), and the price is +6% versus five years ago, and 26% below the record high of $2.69/lb set in April 2026. The freshest read, Nowflation's index of USDA-reported advertised prices for fresh fruits and vegetables (the whole category, not tomatoes alone), rose 0.3% from August 2026 to September 2026 and sits +1.0% against the same weeks last year.
BLS average prices for September 2026 publish with the CPI on October 14, 2026 at 8:30 AM Eastern. The advertised-price index adds a month once the month has ended and USDA's weekly feature reports for it are in; this page republishes every morning with whatever is newest.
BLS; USDA AMS weekly grocery feature reports (MyMarketNews), from which Nowflation builds the advertised-price index. Every series is charted with its full history on this page and listed with its source in the open data directory; the public-data series also download there.