‘It’s not panic-buying’: farmers defend stockpiling as regional Australia bears brunt of fuel crisis

Independent retailers are struggling to get fuel from the majors and say farmers have only responded to soaring prices and lack of availability

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Rural fuel distributor Paul McCallum hopes the worst is over.

At the start of the month, as fuel prices surged after the US and Israel bombed Iran, farmers started bringing their diesel orders forward, requesting “a boisterous but not over the top” 1.5m litres from his company Inland Petroleum.