Pining for a real tree? Hurry, they are selling fast!

IRELAND will have chopped down 700,000 Christmas trees by the time we sit down to our festive dinner next week.

But if you haven’t grabbed yours yet, you better act fast because almost half of them are sent to decorate thousands of homes across Europe.

As we export 300,000 of our crop, furniture store Ikea is importing bargain trees from Scotland – and they’re not self-assembly.

The average price for real trees this year has been around €45, according to the Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association – but Ikea, famous for its flat-pack furniture, is selling them for a cut-price €30 and offering a €20 voucher to spend in its stores after Christmas. A spokesman for Ikea said its ‘sales are performing well’.

But a spokesman for the ICTGA, which represents around 80 growers across the country, urged customers to support Irish growers – with the industry worth €21million to the economy.

He said: ‘By buying an Irish Christmas tree, people are not only getting quality but they are also supporting jobs in their local communities.

‘The trend already this season is that more real Irish Christmas trees than ever will be sold, up to 400,000... It’s an element of nostalgia of going back to the real tree. It’s very positive for all of us. It’s been a pretty good year.’