Interisland shipping company Young Brothers Ltd. said it will increase its fuel price surcharge to 7.01 percent from 4.22 percent beginning today.

When added to the base price for shipping, the new fuel surcharge will add about 1 cent to the cost of shipping a 24-package case of saimin and about 1 cent to the cost of shipping a case of 24 cans of juice, the company said.

Young Brothers provides a 30 percent discount to farmers for local agricultural products and has done so on all islands since 1995. The increase will add about 5 cents to the shipping cost for a 50-pound bag of Maui cabbage from the Neighbor Islands to Honolulu.

Young Brothers' fuel-price adjustment is based on the average cost of fuel over the preceding three-month period. From June through August the average fuel price paid by Young Brothers was much higher than in prior three-month periods, said Roy Catalani, the company's vice president of Strategic Planning and Government Affairs.

Because of the recent rapid increases in fuel prices, Young Brothers recovered only a little more than half of its increased fuel costs in the first seven months of this year, he said.

He added that the company is continuing efforts to streamline and improve the efficiency of its equipment and operations.

For example, Catalani said, Young Brothers is replacing its existing barges with a new generation of larger, state-of-the art vessels.

The first of those barges, the Ho'omaka Hou, went into service on Young Brothers' Kaua'i route in November 2007. The second, the Maka'ala, went into service on the Kawaihae route in July. A third new barge is expected to go into service by the end of the year, with a fourth new barge going into service in 2009.