Many Factors Impact Prices at Emmaus Farmers' Market

As the started its eighth season on May 1, talk wasn’t so much about lettuce, honey or grass-fed beef.

It was about fuel.

With regular gas prices up about $1 per gallon since last year and rising to near $4 per gallon, the farmers wondered how they -- and consumers -- would foot the bill.

Prices for diesel fuel, used in many tractors and other farm equipment, were at about 40 cents per gallon more than gas.

“We always try to keep our prices realistic,” said George DeVault, owner of Pheasant Hill Farm in Vera Cruz. “The economy isn’t great and everybody’s in a bind. We got bills to pay too, and we have to cover our costs.”

The market touts itself as the premier producer-only market in the Lehigh Valley, with locally produced, safe, and highly nutritious farm products.

With 19 producers, it’s open Sundays in the parking lot of Keystone Nazareth Bank & Trust from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine, until the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving in November.

The bad news at the May 1 market was that meat prices have already begun climbing, farmers said. Fruits and vegetables have remained relatively steady.

The good news, farmers said, is that the Emmaus Farmers’ Market is located close to nearly all the participating farms, meaning that consumers don’t have to eat transportation costs as they do at big supermarkets.

“Our prices are up a little bit from last year, but if you’ve been to the grocery store recently, you know their prices are a whole lot more, because everything travels by truck,” said DeVault of Pheasant Hill Farm. He sells plants and vegetables.

“With diesel so expensive, they keep passing the cost on to consumers. We’re a little less than three miles from this market, so we don’t have to do what the big grocery chains do.

“The Central Intelligence Agency, yes, that’s right, figures the food in this country travels the average of 1,500 miles from farm to port. We can be a little more competitive.”

Breakaway Farms produces grass-fed beef, pigs, lamb, chickens and turkeys in Mount Joy, Lancaster County. Owner Nathan Thomas couldn’t boast about low transportation costs.

“Part of it is gas to get here,” Thomas said. “More is because of the price of grain. Corn has doubled the price that it was last year. So many of these traders are buying and selling corn on the open market that the commodity price goes up based on the fuel.

“That’s passed into pesticides, diesel fuel and corn. I use organic corn so that’s incrementally higher beyond that. All the animals that eat corn on my farm are selling for more money this year than last year.”

Most would think that honey bees wouldn’t have a problem with inflation, but not so according to Pete Sliwky of Stagecoach Honey in Lehighton.

“My prices haven’t gone up yet,’’ Sliwky said. “Jars are still $5 to $23 because this is last year’s honey.”

Keith Hausman drives a John Deere tractor carrying produce from the Hausman Fruit Farm in Coopersburg to Emmaus for the market. He said rain is more of a worry for fruit farmers that fuel prices.

“I don’t anticipate prices going up a whole lot,’’ Hausman said. “Asparagus is still $5 per pound, as it was two years ago. “More than gas prices will be the threat of rain. Right now we’re just going through blooming apples. Blossoms and rain never mix too well. ’’