According to AAA, the average price for regular unleaded gasoline in Florida is $3.24 per gallon. Just last week, the average was less that $3.00.

The high prices are affecting everything at the grocery store, including eggs. According to Forbes, back in 2000, a dozen eggs cost about 91 cents. Today, in some places, that price is more than $4.50.

Storrs “Bud” Dunklin has been running his free range egg farm Bud’s Yard Eggs in Hudson for four years. He says the price of doing business recently is getting “egg”agerated.

“The average cost in Florida of a dozen eggs right now was up to $4.69 or something to that effect,” he said. “We sell fresh farm eggs and they’re usually not even three days old, and we sell them for $4.00 and we try to keep our price down.”

He blames two things for the price jump, feed and fuel.

“The price of feed is just skyrocketing.” Dunklin said. “And it’s not that they’re trying to capitalize on it, but the transportation costs. Fuel has gone up. Farmers have to pay more for their fuel and their shipping and things. It’s like a domino effect and it’s coming downhill.”

Bill & Patty Reed agree. They co-own Amber Glen Feed Depot in Pinellas Park, and they say they’re getting billed for things they’ve never had to pay for in the past.

“We used to never get a fuel charge,” Patty said. “We just got a freight charge. Now we get freight and fuel and we also get charged to use wooden pallets. They charge us almost $10 for each wooden pallet.”

Their monthly shipping bill is nearly $5,000 now and they don’t see any end in sight.

“We absorb a lot of it just to keep our customers able to feed their animals,” Reed said.

But she doesn’t know how long they’ll be able to keep doing that. Dunklin just hopes this doesn’t get more expensive.

“I think prices are gonna continue to fluctuate,” he said. “I’m just happy that our customer base is happy and that we can continue to provide them with the best eggs that we can.”