With the vast majority of fresh fruits and vegetables grown in the United States moving to their final destination by truck, on-highway diesel fuel prices play a significant role in setting the rates specialty crop growers must pay to get their product to market. For individual growers the impact of rising fuel prices depends on distance, perishability of their crop and method of transportation. But as USDA’s Economic Research Service summarized in a 2013 report, “Overall, as fuel prices rise, so do wholesale produce prices and the margins between farm and wholesale prices.” For this reason, the steady upward trend in on-highway diesel fuel rates since early 2016 has growers starting to wonder when they’ll get some relief.

Read the full article on the American Farm Bureau Federation website.