Farmers are warning Kiwis that food prices will rise again as they struggle to pay to plough the fields, thanks to the price of diesel skyrocketing to record highs.
Hawke’s Bay Federated Farmers president Jim Galloway said the sector has had sweeping price increases.
“Fertiliser has been going up by 50% and some urea nitrogen has gone up a lot more than that over the last two years, some are 100 to 200% increase.”
But the hike that's hurting farms the most is diesel, it's the highest it's ever been, even nudging past octane 91.
“Fuel has been a big one, I think it’s up 50% over the last 12 months because we don’t only use diesel, we use petrol, contractors like shearers and tractors have gone up and staffing, wages have gone up,” Galloway said.
Sheep, beef, and arable farm manager Hugh Abbiss said he had concerns for future prices.
“The big unknown, how far these prices are going to go and how much more were going to have to absorb, we’re still here and still operating at the moment but it’s not as easy as it has been, it’s getting tougher.
“This season we have 130,000 hectares of grain crop that’s going to require up to 100 machine hours before it’s all trucked off farm all of which will require higher prices and wages to operate.”
A year ago, it cost around $600 to fill a 600-litre tractor. That's now increased to over $1200.
Abbiss said prices at supermarkets will increase.
“We're certainly seeing increased prices at Farmgate level and I don't think they have fully made their way to the supermarket yet so I think there’s more increases in the cost of food to be seen at supermarket level yet.”
The pain for farmers set to bring even more pain at the checkout.
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