Veg Prices

Has anyone else noticed that prices for vegetables seem to be holding still or rising from what were already lofty levels at the end of last year.  In some cases, such as California or Mexican produce you can blame high freight rates caused by the soaring cost of fuel.  But that doesn't explain the higher prices for local produce, especially when the grower is not receiving much extra at the farm gate.  It would seem that the perenially excorciated "middlemen" services such as local transport, packaging, supermarket overhead,  etc. have gone up substanially.  (Please notice, I don't include produce brokers in that category, as I know from personal experience that brokerage fees are not up and in any case make up an inconsequential amount to begin with.)  Probably most of the above increases can be tied one way or another to the price of oil.  It is part of each process in the field to fork journey made by produce.