UNITED STATES - Everyone is watching the price at national pumps climb. For growers, packers, and shippers, that number lands somewhere deeper, because diesel hits the supply side where it hurts: the ability to do business well, and at the standard they live and die by.
In California, where so much of this country's fresh produce originates, on-highway diesel averaged $8.25 a gallon in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Sept. 21 survey, released Tuesday. The national average reached $6.53, up 24 cents in a single week and $2.78 above where it sat a year ago. The West Coast as a whole came in at $7.46, the Midwest at $6.68, and the Gulf Coast at $6.18, putting more than $2 a gallon between California and the cheapest region in the country.
Daily tracking reveals even more pain points. AAA put California's statewide diesel average at $8.44 on Sept. 22, up from $5.16 a year ago, with metro averages running from $8.16 in El Centro to $8.94 in San Rafael, a spread of 78 cents inside California alone. Salinas sat at $8.72. Nationally, AAA's $6.53 average is 77 percent above the $3.69 drivers were paying a year ago, and the association lists it as the highest national diesel average on record.
To say that transportation costs are critical to domestic production would be an understatement. Margins are eroding across the supply chain.
With produce suppliers bearing the cost of these surcharges, a possible solution is for retailers to help cover them. Ideally, added costs such as fuel surcharges are built into contracts from the outset. When they are not, the relationship carries the weight, and not every buyer is receptive.
The EIA now expects distillate supply to stay tight into 2027.
And truckload linehaul rates climbed 11.3 percent year over year in August, according to Cass Information Systems.
A surcharge for suppliers is not just absorbed; it has a profound impact. And not just on costs today, but on the viability and livelihood of our produce companies tomorrow and in the future.
Figures and Sources
- EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, survey date Sept. 21, 2026, released Sept. 22, 2026. Next release Sept. 29
- AAA Gas Prices
- Cass Transportation Indexes
- EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook, Sept. 9, 2026
