Fuel Prices Continue to Crunch Agriculture
It is time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I am Haylie Shipp.
The American Farm Bureau Federation is out with some pretty dramatic new figures on the toll that fuel inflation is taking on producers and consumers.
The cost of growing food and fiber is soaring with no end in sight. AFB Chief Economist Roger Cryan…
“At the retail level, gasoline is up 50-percent from a year ago and fuel oil is up 100-percent from a year ago.”
And for diesel, we’re seeing a 74-percent increase from a year ago. As far as what’s causing the record fuel prices...
“The strength in demand as the economy has recovered from covid recessions, and the other is the massive disruption of so many markets from the war in Ukraine.”
And then we’ve also got factors on the production side…
“There have been some disruptions to U.S. refining capacity, which affects the market, we also need to see some increases in production if we’re going to make up the gap, resulting from the Russian shortfalls.”
Fuel prices, of course, could still come down, but experts say the US must boost domestic oil production and expand refining capacity, both of which require investment and regulatory flexibility that’s lacking right now. Hurricane season could also hurt production squeezing tight supplies even more as the summer driving season kicks into high gear.
