Many farmers have already tightened their belts, leaving little margin to accommodate fuel price increases, said Jon Paul Driver, a hay farmer near Spokane, Washington, and second vice president of the Washington Farm Bureau.
"Any increase in fuel right now is additional debt for the farm," Driver said.
U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a September 11 letter to provide temporary relief to farmers as they "absorb substantial unplanned fuel costs during one of the most diesel-intensive periods of the year."
A USDA spokesperson said the agency is "not leaving any stone unturned" on high diesel prices and pointed to a September 15 NewsMax interview in which Rollins said she would have more to announce on the topic in the coming weeks.
Though fuel accounts for a small share of the cost of food, consumers could still see prices rise as the supply chain absorbs higher fuel costs over the coming months, Ortega said.
Those effects could take time to play out because retailers may attempt to absorb short-term price increases, or because freight contracts locked in at lower prices do not yet reflect fuel surcharges, Ortega said.
He added that some of the items most vulnerable to price hikes are grocery essentials like produce, dairy and meat that require fuel-intensive refrigerated trucking.
Rates to move apples and pears via refrigerated trailers out of Washington State’s Yakima Valley have hit a four-year high with the harvest season only halfway over, said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics.
The cost to transport produce out of California is up 40% to 120% from a year ago. In some California cities, diesel prices have topped $8 per gallon, Croke said.
Independent truckers, who typically pay for fuel up front, may not be able to withstand further hikes, Croke said.
"We're about to see diesel price-driven bankruptcies" of trucking firms, he said.
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