Homemade tomato paste price in 1405: what a kilo really costs

Every tomato season, searches for "homemade tomato paste price" spike and the answers are all over the place: one seller asks several times the price of factory paste for a kilo of homemade, another undercuts the supermarket can. Both can be honest, because the price of homemade paste isn't a fixed number — it's the result of a simple calculation. Know the calculation and you can judge any price you're offered yourself.

How many kilos of tomatoes go into a kilo of paste?

A tomato is about 94% water, and cooking paste means driving most of that water off until the tomato solids are concentrated several times over. That's why a kilo of paste usually represents 5 to 7 kilos of fresh tomatoes: the juicier the tomatoes and the thicker the paste, the closer you get to the top of that range, and the skins and seeds sieved out along the way add a little more.

So a fair price for homemade paste starts here: the price of a kilo of tomatoes times 5 to 7, plus salt, the gas or fuel for several hours of cooking, the jar and the labour. That figure is a floor, and anything that keeps a paste reliably below it has some explaining to do.

The calculation with real prices from Shahrivar 1405

On 31 Shahrivar 1405 (22 September 2026), tomatoes cost roughly 73,000 to 97,000 toman a kilo in online stores; see today's tomato price for the current figure. At that price, the tomatoes alone for one kilo of homemade paste come to about 365,000 to 680,000 toman — before salt, fuel and the jar.

In the same month, factory tomato paste in an 800 g can sold for about 120,000 to 192,000 toman — roughly 150,000 to 240,000 toman a kilo (today's tomato paste prices). The conclusion is plain: made from tomatoes bought at retail, homemade paste cannot beat factory paste on price; it costs at least one and a half times as much, and sometimes over four times.

The same arithmetic explains why homemade paste only pays at the height of the season, when tomatoes are bought in bulk at the farm or the wholesale market for far less than retail. So when you see cheap homemade paste, multiply that week's tomato price by 5 to 7 in your head. If the paste is cheaper still, asking "what did you pay for the tomatoes?" isn't rude — it's the question that gives the price its meaning.

Homemade or factory: what's actually different?

• Thickness: many factory cans print the Brix — the percentage of solids; a higher number means a thicker paste and more tomato per kilo. Homemade paste carries no label, and its thickness varies from batch to batch.
• Salt: homemade paste is usually saltier, because salt is part of what preserves it. If your salt intake matters, ask before buying.
• Shelf life: an unopened factory can keeps for months. Homemade paste belongs in a clean, sealed jar, and in the fridge once opened; if it grows mould or the lid bulges, throw the whole jar away, not just the top.
• Taste: many people buy homemade paste for the flavour, which is a perfectly good reason to pay more — as long as you know what you're paying extra for.

Compare the price per kilo, not per can

Factory paste comes in several sizes — 280, 400, 680 and 800 g cans, plus multi-kilo packs — and the smaller can is usually dearer per kilo: in the prices we recorded for one brand, the 280 g can worked out about 20% more expensive per kilo than the 800 g one. To compare fairly, divide the price by the weight; for an 800 g can, the price per kilo is a quarter more than the price of the can. See today's prices for the most-searched brands — Delnand, Rojin and Hamedanian — with the seller and date behind each price.

How to spot adulterated paste

A paste cheaper than the arithmetic above has usually been cheapened with one of three things: extra water, starch or flour to fake thickness, or food colouring to cover a weak colour. A few signs you can check without a lab:

• The starch test: thin a little paste with water and add a drop or two of iodine solution, such as Betadine. If it turns bluish or black, there is starch in it; pure tomato paste doesn't react that way.
• Colour: pure paste is a deep, slightly matt red that darkens the longer it cooks; a glossy, suspiciously uniform red deserves a question.
• Texture: a paste that stretches or sets like jelly probably contains a thickener.
• The seller: buy homemade paste from a producer with a name, an address and, ideally, a production licence — and ask when and where the tomatoes were bought.

Where to see today's paste and tomato prices

There's no official price list for homemade paste, but the two numbers its arithmetic depends on are available every day: today's tomato price and factory tomato paste prices, both with the seller and date on each price. The rest of the grocery basket is in today's grocery prices, and if you're in no hurry, a price alert will tell you when a brand gets cheaper. How to tell whether a price is today's or an old one is covered in current price vs stale price.

How many kilos of tomatoes does a kilo of homemade paste take?

Usually 5 to 7 kilos of fresh tomatoes. A tomato is about 94% water and cooking paste drives most of it off; the juicier the tomatoes and the thicker the paste, the more tomatoes it takes.

What is a fair price for homemade tomato paste in 1405?

The floor for a kilo of homemade paste is the price per kilo of the tomatoes the maker bought, times 5 to 7, plus salt, fuel, the jar and labour. At retail tomato prices on 31 Shahrivar 1405 — about 73,000 to 97,000 toman a kilo — the tomatoes alone for a kilo of paste came to about 365,000 to 680,000 toman.

Is homemade tomato paste cheaper than factory paste?

Not when the tomatoes are bought at retail: in Shahrivar 1405 factory paste in an 800 g can cost about 150,000 to 240,000 toman a kilo, while the tomatoes alone for a kilo of homemade paste cost at least one and a half times that. Homemade paste pays only when the tomatoes are bought in bulk at the height of the season.

How can I tell if tomato paste contains starch?

Thin a little paste with water and add a drop or two of iodine solution such as Betadine. If it turns bluish or black, the paste contains starch; pure tomato paste doesn't react that way.