Produce buyer vs senior purchasing agent

The differences between produce buyers and senior purchasing agents can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes More than 10 years to become a produce buyer, becoming a senior purchasing agent takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a senior purchasing agent has an average salary of $73,386, which is higher than the $55,778 average annual salary of a produce buyer.

The top three skills for a produce buyer include purchase orders, logistics and inventory control. The most important skills for a senior purchasing agent are purchase orders, project management, and supplier relationships.

Produce buyer vs senior purchasing agent overview

	Produce Buyer	Senior Purchasing Agent
Yearly salary	$55,778	$73,386
Hourly rate	$26.82	$35.28
Growth rate	-	-6%
Number of jobs	17,664	43,833
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	47	48
Years of experience	-	6

What does a produce buyer do?

Being a produce buyer requires commercial awareness, confidence, the ability to be a team player, interpersonal, math, and IT skills, as well as the ability to cope with high pressure. This position will demand negotiation and collaboration with produce suppliers in promoting, pricing, and advertising products. You will also be the primary contact between stores and suppliers, and also be responsible for maintaining supply quality through determining the best sources of produce.

What does a senior purchasing agent do?

Senior Purchasing Agents are experienced employees in the company's purchasing department. They oversee the purchase requisitions of the employees. They validate requests, ensure that the requestors followed company guidelines, check the availability of the items with the chosen supplier, and forward the purchase order to the supplier. Upon fulfillment of the request, Senior Purchasing Agents check the deliveries, ensure that the items are complete and correct, forward the items to the requestor, and process the payment for the supplier. Senior Purchasing agents also prepare reports, spot trends in employee or department purchases, and create recommendations based on observations. They are also expected to form good working relationships with suppliers.

Produce buyer vs senior purchasing agent salary

Produce buyers and senior purchasing agents have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Produce Buyer	Senior Purchasing Agent
Average salary	$55,778	$73,386
Salary range	Between $40,000 And $77,000	Between $52,000 And $103,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	New York
Best paying company	-	Levi Strauss & Co.
Best paying industry	-	Energy

Differences between produce buyer and senior purchasing agent education

There are a few differences between a produce buyer and a senior purchasing agent in terms of educational background:

	Produce Buyer	Senior Purchasing Agent
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 69%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	California State University - Bakersfield	University of Pennsylvania

Produce buyer vs senior purchasing agent demographics

Here are the differences between produce buyers' and senior purchasing agents' demographics:

	Produce Buyer	Senior Purchasing Agent
Average age	47	48
Gender ratio	Male, 77.3% Female, 22.7%	Male, 57.7% Female, 42.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.7% Unknown, 3.1% Hispanic or Latino, 10.2% Asian, 6.6% White, 75.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 8.9% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 12.3% Asian, 7.7% White, 66.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	15%	7%

Differences between produce buyer and senior purchasing agent duties and responsibilities

Produce buyer example responsibilities.

Analyze and manage goals for increasing sales, profit margins, turns, fill rate and manage logistics.
Manage open-to-buy to ensure continual flow of merchandise to stores and warehouses with careful attention to advertise events and promotions.
Coordinate with transportation department to ensure efficiency in logistics of transporting employees and products using company vehicles.
Manage open-to-buy to ensure continual flow of merchandise to stores and warehouses with careful attention to advertise events and promotions.
Track all incoming requests for quote (RFQ) from customers, sales managers, and outside sales representatives.
Review purchase requisitions and engineering specifications to determine which suppliers to RFQ.

Senior purchasing agent example responsibilities.

Manage patterns for older, obsolete OEM part outsource production to locally foundries.
Interact within an ERP system environment and manage various reporting tools to support operations and control the flow of information.
Manage subcontracts activity including RFQ analysis, major negotiations and construction of complex subcontracting orders and milestones.
Provide management for warehousing, transportation, documentation requirements, cost analysis, third-party logistics, and reverse logistics.
Help create new purchasing procurement program base on customer forecasting and JIT programs (KANBAN).
Update & maintain ERP system part master data including new item creation, discontinuations and site planning changes.

Produce buyer vs senior purchasing agent skills

Common produce buyer skills

Purchase Orders, 12%
Logistics, 11%
Inventory Control, 10%
Quality Standards, 10%
Manage Inventory, 8%
Product Knowledge, 8%

Common senior purchasing agent skills

Purchase Orders, 8%
Project Management, 6%
Supplier Relationships, 6%
Strategic Sourcing, 5%
Customer Service, 5%
Continuous Improvement, 5%

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Produce Buyer vs Senior Purchasing Agent

Updated January 8, 2025

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