OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — Rising fuel costs are hitting Midwestern farmers and businesses hard, with gas prices at regional pumps jumping by almost 90% in the last year and 10% in the last week alone.
Diesel prices have outpaced gasoline throughout the entire Midwest, with an almost 166% increase over the last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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For Winnebago-area farmers, the surge in diesel costs is an unavoidable burden. Charlie Knigge, a second-generation farmer from Omro, said his operation runs almost entirely on diesel.
"Pretty much everything on the farm is run with diesel these days. Our fuel costs will be up about 33% this year, if not a little more."
Knigge said planting season will only deepen the financial strain.
"So we'll be using a lot of diesel fuel in the next 2 weeks here to get the crop on the ground."
Unlike other industries, farmers have no way to offset rising costs by adjusting their prices.
"The downside is farmers are end users. We can't pass our higher costs onto the consumer," Knigge said, "We have a set price for our milk, a set price for our grain, and that's what it is."
Some businesses, however, have found ways to shield customers from the impact. Wayne Doney, general manager of Golden Nest LLC, said fuel surcharges added by vendors during the COVID-19 pandemic never went away — but his business has still managed to bring prices down.
"When COVID hit, all of our vendors added a fuel charge. Well, those charges have never gone away," Doney said.
When asked whether Golden Nest had been able to reduce prices despite those lingering charges, Doney said vendor negotiations made it possible.
"After COVID, when things started to stabilize, prices also came down. We were able to take those savings through our negotiations with vendors and pass them along to our customers."
Customers at Golden Nest can expect coffee and pancake prices to remain unchanged for now.
Fuel prices do not appear to be coming down soon. According to U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, gas may remain above $3 until next year.
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