Monday’s drop in fuel costs isn’t giving much of a confidence boost to B.C. farmers, with the cost of local berries expected to go up this year.

Roughly one month away from local berries hitting store shelves, some farmers are saying prices could increase anywhere between 5 and 10 percent from last year.

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The Carney government has suspended the federal fuel excise tax from now until Labour Day, representing a 10-cent-per-litre drop for gas and a four-cent-per-litre drop for diesel.

Alf Krause, owner of Krause Berry Farms and Estate Winery in Langley, says suspending the federal fuel excise tax won’t make enough of a difference to bring down operating costs.

“For diesel, four cents doesn’t make any difference,” said Krause.

“Not when it’s gone up 60 cents. We do get mark gas and mark diesel discount tax from the provincial government, but that’s been in for the long term.”

Krause says costs have been going up everywhere for farmers.

“The labour costs are high, and then the input costs: it’s slowly going up,” he said.

“We’re starting to get all these fuel surcharges on stuff, and we’re not sure where that’s going to go. Hopefully that’s going to end shortly.”

Krause says that with the annual rise in minimum wage, passing costs on to consumers might be unavoidable.

He adds that final pricing will depend on crop yields, with local strawberries expected to be the first to hit store shelves by late May.