Quick Answer: Produce Packing Shed Cost
Produce packing shed cost starts with the steel building: $45,000-$123,900 installed at 2,400 square feet (40x60), and $73,800-$192,700 at 4,000 (50x80). That covers the kit, a 4-inch slab, erection, site preparation and permits. The cooler, wash equipment, plumbing and power are extra. University of Minnesota Extension lists walk-in cooler kits at $8,114-$19,672, and one Vermont farm spent $55,000 on a covered wash and pack area, per UVM Extension.
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Farm Packing House Cost and Guide
Your farm produces exceptional vegetables, but quality slips between the field and the truck. Produce waits in makeshift areas without cooling, workers wash crops in cramped spaces, and wholesale buyers ask questions about food safety that a bare shed cannot answer. A proper packing shed is the difference between selling premium produce and settling for commodity prices.
This page prices the steel building for a produce packing shed by floor area and keeps it on its own line. Produce packing shed cost is the building plus the cooler, wash equipment and utilities that make it a packing house, and each of those outside figures comes from a named source listed at the bottom. You can check every number against the page it came from.
Why Metal Buildings Are Ideal for Produce Packing Facilities
A packing shed is a work floor with water, cold and trucks moving through it. Metal buildings suit that job because the frame spans wide and the interior wall panels wash down. Wood framing and open pole barns give dust, insects and rodents more places to hide.
Structural Advantages for Food Production
The clear-span design of metal buildings leaves out interior posts, so the floor stays open for the workflow. You can place wash stations, sorting tables and packing benches where they make sense without working around columns. Adding a second packing line later is a matter of moving benches, not walls.
The Metal Building Manufacturers Association says metal building systems can span great widths and lengths with or without additional interior supports. Steel framing follows the design specifications published by the American Institute of Steel Construction, and the frame can carry overhead conveyors, mounted fans and heavy refrigeration equipment. Metal roofing with a proper pitch sheds water quickly. Your engineer sizes the frame for the snow and wind loads at your site.
What the Produce Safety Rule Asks of the Building
Under 21 CFR 112.126, a building used for covered produce activities must be suitable in size, construction and design to facilitate maintenance and sanitary operations. It must have adequate drainage wherever normal operations release water onto the floor or ground, and it must prevent contamination from floors, walls, ceilings, fixtures, pipes and drip or condensate. A smooth, cleanable steel interior is one way to meet that. Whether your farm is covered by the rule at all is a separate question for your state produce safety program.
Practical Benefits
Construction speed matters when you are racing toward harvest. A pre-engineered package arrives as a kit with components made for bolted field connections, so framing goes up faster than poured walls or masonry. Metal panels do not rot or need painting, which leaves your time for growing.
Sizing Your Produce Packing Facility
Size the building to the work that happens in it, because floor area is what sets the produce packing shed cost. Too small and you build again in a few years. Too large and you pay to slab, erect and cool space you do not use. Count your zones first, then draw the box around them.
Operation Scale and Layout
Plan dedicated zones: harvest bins arriving, wash stations with drainage, sorting and packing tables with good lighting, cold storage for finished product, and a separate door for loading orders. UVM Extension's wash-and-pack notes recommend one-directional flow from dirty to clean, with a bench height of about 30 inches. That flow keeps clean produce from crossing paths with field-dirty bins.
One real example gives a sense of scale. Sweetland Farm in Norwich, Vermont, built a 20x35 foot covered wash area beside an existing 10x25 foot shed that serves as the packing area, according to UVM Extension. That is 700 square feet of wash space and 250 of packing, before cold storage, and the produce packing shed cost climbs with every zone added. A farm that adds a cooler, a loading door, dry storage and an office needs a larger box.
Ceiling height matters because eave height drives the produce packing shed cost of the kit. Garages up to 1,500 square feet start at 10 foot eaves, buildings above that start at 12 feet, and buildings over 6,000 square feet start at 14. Each foot above the starting eave adds about 3% of the kit. For a 40x60, going from 12 to 14 feet adds about 6% of the kit, roughly $1,000-$3,500. Choose the taller eave if you plan overhead conveyors or a loft for packaging.
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Popular Produce Packing Shed Sizes
| Dimensions | Square Footage | Starting Eave | Steel Kit | Installed Building |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30x40 | 1,200 sq ft | 10 ft | $10,800-$38,400 | $25,800-$75,900 |
| 40x60 | 2,400 sq ft | 12 ft | $16,800-$57,600 | $45,000-$123,900 |
| 50x80 | 4,000 sq ft | 12 ft | $28,000-$88,000 | $73,800-$192,700 |
| 60x100 | 6,000 sq ft | 12 ft | $42,000-$132,000 | $109,800-$284,700 |
| 80x120 | 9,600 sq ft | 14 ft | $67,200-$211,200 | $174,600-$450,300 |
These are the steel building only. Installed means the kit plus a 4-inch slab at $6-$12 per square foot, erection at $5-$12 per square foot, site preparation of $1,300-$5,600 and permits of $500-$3,100. The cooler, wash equipment, plumbing, electrical service and interior finishes are separate lines, priced in the sections below.
Essential Features for Produce Packing Operations
A general farm building becomes a packing shed through a handful of features. They support food safety and make daily work easier, and most of them add cost.
Food Safety Infrastructure
Drainage comes first. The Produce Safety Rule requires adequate drainage wherever operations release water onto the floor, so the slab should slope to floor drains, with trench drains where water volume is highest. The Sweetland wash area has a medium-polish concrete slab that cleans easily without being slippery when wet, and its floor drainage runs to a sediment settling tank and a leach field, per UVM Extension. Plan the drainage during construction because retrofitting it means cutting concrete.
Seal the building against pests. Wall panels should run to floor level, utility penetrations should be sealed, and overhead and personnel doors should close tight. These details get looked at during third-party food safety audits.
Provide a handwashing station near the entrance with potable water, soap, paper towels and a trash can. University of Minnesota Extension lists this as a basic part of any pack shed.
Climate Control Systems
A walk-in cooler is the biggest equipment line in a produce packing shed cost estimate, and the most important single investment for quality. The University of Georgia's storage guide says storage temperature is the most important factor in maintaining quality and extending shelf life, and that delays in cooling field heat lower visual quality, gloss and firmness. It lists leafy greens at 32°F, broccoli and cabbage at 32°F, and tomatoes at 50-55°F. One cooler setting does not suit every crop, so a farm growing both needs separate coolers or zones.
A cooler built into a steel building is a box inside a box. The steel building shields it from sun and weather, and the building's own insulation keeps the room around it from fighting the cooler. Ventilation matters too. Powered exhaust near wash stations removes steam, and the Georgia guide says about one air exchange per hour usually suffices for storage areas.
Workflow Features
A loading dock at truck-bed height saves labor and spares delicate vegetables from ramp handling. Even a small operation benefits from one dock door. Stainless steel wash basins and a triple-compartment sink handle washing, rinsing and sanitizing, and University of Minnesota Extension notes some farms use stainless triple sinks for smaller basins. Position them near the water supply and drains to keep plumbing runs short.
Leave room for dry storage. Packaging materials such as boxes, clamshells and labels need a clean, dry spot away from the wash area. Sweetland uses an enclosed loft for clean, dry packing supplies.
Electrical Service Planning
Calculate the power your equipment needs before the electrician pulls a permit. University of Minnesota Extension advises working out the load of every washer, fan and light and planning how to deliver it to the shed. Its cooler guide adds that coolers larger than 8x8 feet generally need 220-volt air conditioners rather than 120-volt units.
Complete Cost Breakdown for Produce Packing Sheds
The produce packing shed cost has two parts that should never be blended. The first is the steel building, priced by floor area. The second is everything a packing house adds: cooler, wash equipment, plumbing and power. The table below keeps the building lines separate so you can see which part is which.
Steel Building Cost by Size
| Building Line | 40x60 (2,400 sq ft) | 50x80 (4,000 sq ft) | 60x100 (6,000 sq ft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel kit | $16,800-$57,600 | $28,000-$88,000 | $42,000-$132,000 |
| 4-inch slab | $14,400-$28,800 | $24,000-$48,000 | $36,000-$72,000 |
| Erection | $12,000-$28,800 | $20,000-$48,000 | $30,000-$72,000 |
| Site preparation | $1,300-$5,600 | $1,300-$5,600 | $1,300-$5,600 |
| Permits | $500-$3,100 | $500-$3,100 | $500-$3,100 |
| Installed building | $45,000-$123,900 | $73,800-$192,700 | $109,800-$284,700 |
Each line is a range, and where you land in it depends on your region, soil, snow load and supplier. The kit range is wide because smaller buildings cost more per square foot than larger ones. Insulation, interior liner panels and doors change the kit line, so ask each supplier what its quote includes.
Wash, Pack and Cooling Equipment Prices
Equipment is the second half of the produce packing shed cost. These prices come from University Extension publications and are quoted as their figures, not ours. Prices were for the date of each publication and have likely moved since.
| Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Covered wash and pack area, 20x35 ft, with slab, drains and permanent water lines | $55,000 | UVM Extension, Sweetland Farm |
| Walk-in cooler kit, 8x8 ft indoor, 120V | $8,114 | UMN Extension, 2024 |
| Walk-in cooler kit, 8x12 ft indoor, 220V | $10,226 | UMN Extension, 2024 |
| Walk-in cooler kit, 10x14 ft indoor, 220V | $13,131 | UMN Extension, 2024 |
| Walk-in cooler kit, 10x20 ft outdoor, 220V | $19,672 | UMN Extension, 2024 |
| Brush washer, 4-unit packing line | $8,085 | UMN Extension, 2025 |
| Barrel root washer kit | $4,250 | UMN Extension, 2025 |
| Greens bubbler | $375-$429 | UMN Extension, 2025 |
| Heavy-duty stock tank wash basin, 100 to 300 gallons | $117-$270 | UMN Extension, 2025 |
University of Minnesota Extension says each cooler kit includes the controller, a new air conditioner, the walk-in box and estimated shipping. The same publication says this approach works well for coolers smaller than 10x20 feet and that safe produce storage generally needs temperatures below 40 degrees.
A Total Is Your Sum, Not a Quote
Add the installed building to the equipment you actually need, then add plumbing, electrical service and interior finishes from local quotes. Any figure from an extension publication is one farm's price in one year. Treat it as a planning number and confirm it with a supplier.
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Food Safety Rules That Shape the Building
The FDA's Produce Safety Rule is 21 CFR part 112, and subpart L covers equipment, tools and buildings. Section 112.122 applies to any fully or partially enclosed building used for covered activities, including a roofed structure with no walls, and to sheds that store food contact surfaces such as harvest containers and packing materials. Your open-sided wash canopy counts.
The rule also asks that equipment and tools be of adequate design, construction and workmanship, and that food contact surfaces be inspected, maintained and cleaned. Those lines are in section 112.123. In practice they decide your sink, table and bin choices more than they decide the steel.
The rule does not say how big a cooler or how many drains. It says what the outcome must be. Write your plan against that outcome and let your state produce safety program or auditor tell you what they will look for.
Frequently Asked Questions About Produce Packing Sheds
The steel building alone sets the starting produce packing shed cost at $45,000-$123,900 installed at 2,400 square feet and $73,800-$192,700 at 4,000. That covers the kit, a 4-inch slab, erection, site preparation and permits. The cooler, wash equipment, plumbing and power are separate lines.
There is no single rule by acreage. Count the zones you need: receiving, washing, packing, cold storage, dry storage and loading. One Vermont farm uses a 20x35 foot covered wash area and a 10x25 foot packing shed, according to UVM Extension. A farm with a cooler and loading door usually lands in the 30x40 to 50x80 range.
University of Minnesota Extension lists walk-in cooler kits at $8,114 for an 8x8 indoor unit up to $19,672 for a 10x20 outdoor unit, including controller, air conditioner, box and estimated shipping. A conventional refrigerated cooler is a different product and costs differently, so get a quote.
A sealed concrete slab that slopes to floor drains. The Produce Safety Rule requires adequate drainage where operations release water, and UVM Extension describes a medium-polish slab at one farm that cleans easily without being slippery when wet. The steel building's own slab is priced at $6-$12 per square foot. Drains and finishes are extra.
The rule asks you to prevent contamination and pests, not to buy a particular door. Doors should close tight with bottom seals, and personnel doors should not be left propped open. Ask your auditor what they will look for.
Section 112.122 covers any fully or partially enclosed building used for covered activities, including a roofed structure without walls. Whether your farm is covered at all, or exempt, depends on the rule's scope. Ask your state produce safety program.
It depends on the crop. The University of Georgia lists leafy greens, broccoli and cabbage at 32°F and tomatoes at 50-55°F. A farm growing both should plan separate coolers or zones.
Usually yes. The steel building's permit range is $500-$3,100, and you may also need electrical and plumbing permits for the wash stations. Some counties treat farm buildings more lightly than commercial ones, and the rules vary by jurisdiction. The International Building Code is a model code that each jurisdiction adopts under its own procedures, and some amend it. Check with your local building department early.
A metal building gives you a clear span with no interior posts and a smooth liner that washes down, which helps with the Produce Safety Rule's cleanable-surface goals. A pole barn can work for a covered wash area. Read the pole barn vs metal building for farms comparison before you choose.
Building Your Packing Facility Investment
A produce packing shed is more than shelter for your harvest. The right facility keeps product cool, gives you a wash and pack flow that runs one way, and lets you answer a buyer's food safety questions. Price the steel building first, then add the cooler and wash equipment you need.
Plan the zones, pick the eave height, and get several quotes at the same size so they compare. The numbers on this page give you a range to hold the quotes against.
Sources
- U.S. Government, via Cornell Legal Information Institute. 21 CFR 112.122, What buildings are subject to the requirements of this subpart? Covers any fully or partially enclosed building used for covered activities, including roofed structures with no walls, and sheds used to store food contact surfaces. law.cornell.edu
- U.S. Government, via Cornell Legal Information Institute. 21 CFR 112.123, Equipment and tools. Equipment and tools must be of adequate design, construction and workmanship, and food contact surfaces must be inspected, maintained and cleaned. law.cornell.edu
- U.S. Government, via Cornell Legal Information Institute. 21 CFR 112.126, Buildings. Buildings must be suitable in size, construction and design to facilitate maintenance and sanitary operations, have adequate drainage, and prevent contamination from floors, walls, ceilings, fixtures, pipes and condensate. law.cornell.edu
- UVM Extension Produce Safety Portal. Covered Wash & Pack (Sweetland Farm, Norwich, Vermont). A 20x35 ft covered wash area costing $55,000, beside a 10x25 ft packing shed, with a medium-polish concrete slab, drainage to a sediment tank and leach field, permanent water lines and an enclosed loft for packing supplies. uvm.edu
- Chris Callahan, UVM Extension. Wash and Pack Stations (2013). One-directional flow from dirty to clean and a 30 inch bench height. blog.uvm.edu
- Ariel Pressman and Annalisa Hultberg, University of Minnesota Extension. CoolBot Walk-in Coolers (2024). Cooler kit prices of $8,114 (8x8 indoor), $10,226 (8x12 indoor), $13,131 (10x14 indoor) and $19,672 (10x20 outdoor), including controller, air conditioner, box and estimated shipping; suited to coolers under 10x20 ft; storage below 40 degrees. umn.edu
- Ariel Pressman and Annalisa Hultberg, University of Minnesota Extension. Postharvest Equipment for Small Farms (2025). Brush washer 4-unit packing line $8,085, barrel root washer kit $4,250, greens bubbler $375-$429, stock tank basins $117-$270, handwashing station and power planning. umn.edu
- Angelos Deltsidis, University of Georgia Extension. Quick Storage Guide for Vegetable Crops, Circular 1205. Storage temperature is the most important factor in maintaining quality, cooling delays lower quality, leafy greens, broccoli and cabbage at 32°F, tomatoes at 50-55°F, and about one air exchange per hour. fieldreport.caes.uga.edu
- Metal Building Manufacturers Association. Design Resources. Metal building systems can span great widths and lengths with or without additional interior supports. mbma.com
- International Code Council. 2021 International Building Code. The IBC is intended to be adopted under the laws and procedures of a governmental jurisdiction, and some jurisdictions amend it. iccsafe.org
- American Institute of Steel Construction. Publishes the design specifications engineers use for structural steel. aisc.org
Related Resources
- Farm Building Cost: What a Steel Farm Building Runs per Square Foot
- Cold Storage Building: Cost and Construction
- Metal Building Food Processing Plant
- Farm Shop Buildings: Cost & Planning Guide
- Farm Equipment Storage Buildings: Cost & Planning Guide
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