ESSEX’S wheatfields might not be on the same scale as Kansas, but they still take up nearly 250,000 acres.

There is quite a bit of rape, too – just over 74,000 acres – plus barley, sugarbeet, vegetables and fruit.

In fact, if it has roots, Essex will grow it.

“This is a big farming county,” said Brian Finnerty.

“There are 450 farms in Essex and 10,000 people work in the industry. They also use a lot of fuel.”

Mr Finnerty is regional spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union East Anglia and, in his opinion, the year to date has been “quite challenging”.

Next year? That, he stressed, is “financially, a huge uncertainty”.

Similar to everywhere else, the rising cost of fuel is hitting agriculture hard. Within the next few days the harvest will begin, and that means the use of fuel will rocket.

However, unlike other industries, farming has what the majority in the commercial sector see as a get-out-of-jail card. Red diesel.

Even at the new high of 67p a litre, farmers must be laughing all the way to the bank?“Hardly,” said Mr Finnerty.

“Other businesses can pass on rising costs to the consumer almost immediately. Farmers can’t.

“They have to sell at worldwide fixed prices – and those prices were set long before the harvest and long before the increase in fuel prices.”

Very little duty is paid on red diesel – dyed red with a chemical marker so it can be easily identified if used illegally – and no duty at all on kerosene.

With agriculture at the mercy of the European Union, as well as international crop prices, red diesel gives some flexibility.

Mr Finnerty added: “With the big increase this year, farmers are set to face massive fuel bills,” he pointed out.

“Even though they have already bought in fuel for the harvest, they will have paid a lot more than last year.” John Jinks has been running Gibbon Farms, 1,750 acres at Colchester and 900 acres at South Fambridge, Rochford, for the past four years.

He said: “The price of red diesel has doubled in the past year alone and I believe it will continue to go up.

“This has been the biggest rise in the cost of red diesel for 45 years.”

But it isn’t only the price of fuel which is increasing.

Anything oil-based costs a lot more than 12 months ago, and farmers use a lot of oil-based products.

Mr Jinks added: “Each farm has to buy tons of fertiliser and pesticide, and all have risen on the back of crude.

“We can cope this year because we have already bought fertiliser at the lower price, about £150 for 300 tons.

“But when we buy for 2009, that price will be between £325 and £350.”