ATLANTA — Prices are holding steady statewide after the U.S. Navy began blocking Iranian ports on Monday, but some fear the costs of goods like groceries and gas could increase.
Channel 2’s Tom Regan spoke with a supply chain and logistics professor at Georgia Tech, who says that rising prices are just the beginning of the impact that will be felt across Georgia.
“It’s going to show up in almost everything we consume and what we do,” professor Chris Gaffney said. “We are talking about disruption of trade lanes...a lot of pharmaceuticals come from further east than the Mideast, and India is a big source of pharmaceuticals.”
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He says that the costs of anything that depends on oil to be made will rise, pushing up the price of goods, including groceries.
“All of our plastic packaging comes from fuel, and even some of the aluminum packaging,” Gaffney said. “I worked at Coke, and the cost of a can of Coke is going to be going up.”
Iran is the biggest exporter of urea, which is used to make fertilizer, the price of which has gone up more than 25%.
There has also been a spike in the price of helium imported from Qatar. A third of the world’s helium supply is now off of the market because of the conflict.
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“We started down a path where these costs are creeping in, and the time to correct it is not going to be immediate,” Gaffney said.
Montrae Waters with AAA says you should expect to see gas prices rise.
“Unfortunately, when we see crude oil trend a trade over $100, expect gas prices to go up,” Waters said.
Currently, Georgia has some of the lowest gas prices in the country because of the suspension of the state gas tax, which is set to expire next month.
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