{"id":461193,"date":"2026-09-12T02:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T02:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461193\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T02:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T02:42:17","slug":"diesel-prices-climb-as-california-farmers-face-costly-harvest-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461193\/","title":{"rendered":"Diesel prices climb as California farmers face costly harvest season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diesel prices have reached record highs<\/a> as California farmers enter one of the busiest and most expensive times of the year: harvest season.<\/p>\n

AAA reports the average price for a gallon of diesel nationwide has soared past $6. In California, diesel averaged $7.98 a gallon Friday, up 7 cents from Thursday and more than $1 from a month ago.<\/p>\n

The record-high prices come in the middle of the harvest season for grapes and other crops, adding to costs for local farmers.<\/p>\n

Across the Valley, tractors and other equipment are staged and ready for another long night of harvest.<\/p>\n

On farms across the state, diesel fuels that work.<\/p>\n

“No, never seen prices like this before,” said Brandon Sywassink of Manna Ranch.<\/p>\n

Sywassink has farmed in San Joaquin County for 21 years. He said he is seeing diesel prices of about $8.25 or more at the pump in the Central Valley, while prices in the Fresno area have been closer to $9 a gallon.<\/p>\n

Sywassink said diesel prices this year are up about $3 per gallon compared with last year.<\/p>\n

Between semi-trucks, tractors and pickup trucks, he has around 120 tanks to fill. With harvest in full swing across 10,000 acres, those tanks burn through more than 20,000 gallons of diesel per week.<\/p>\n

“Our usage of fuel is at its peak\u2026 it just kind of keeps on, you know, we keep on taking it, and we can’t do anything about it,” Sywassink said.<\/p>\n

Stuart Spencer of the Lodi Winegrape Commission said the recent diesel price hikes are hitting larger winegrape growers and wineries especially hard.<\/p>\n

“The unfortunate thing for farmers is we are price takers, not price makers,” Spencer said. “We’re already dealing with a very difficult and challenging wine and grape market. Many growers are still trying to sell their fruit this year, and when you’re adding additional costs on top of that, it’s just really tough.”<\/p>\n

Experts warn diesel price hikes could also eventually affect grocery store prices. They say any positive developments in the Middle East could take weeks to impact prices at the pump.<\/p>\n

“Our profits have been really minimal, if anything,” Sywassink said. “Focus on buying stuff here from Lodi. Try to focus on buying stuff from San Joaquin County and try to focus on buying just California.”<\/p>\n

Facing more costs during their busiest season, California farmers are now asking consumers to help.<\/p>\n

“Just drink local wine,” Spencer said.<\/p>\n

Watch more from ABC10: Why rising diesel prices are hitting California farms hard<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diesel prices have reached record highs as California farmers enter one of the busiest and most expensive times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14235,7,1377,125569,9,8,106548,30357,159604,13722,11156],"class_list":["post-461193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-brandon-sywassink","tag-california","tag-california-farmers","tag-california-farms","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-diesel-prices","tag-harvest","tag-harvest-season","tag-san-joaquin-county","tag-stuart-spencer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}