Big rush fir festive trees
Sales up 24% on last year as Brits seek cheer in lockdown
FARMS are running out of Christmas trees after a surge in sales as shoppers are buying early.
The British Christmas Tree Growers Association said there had been a 24% sales rise year-on-year with some farms having their entire crop snapped up by mid-November.
Managing agent Heather Parry said: “It feels like it’s really buzzing.”
A stocklist kept by the UK’s 320 tree growers has “nothing left on it”, said Olly Combe, the owner of York Christmas Trees.
Mr Coombe supplied the 20ft Nordmann fir to Downing Street this year – his prize for winning BCTGA show this month.
He sells 11,000 trees a year and currently only has enough stock for his regulars. “I have a friend in the
Lincolnshire with a slightly bigger business, and he has sold out,” he said.
But he predicted the early sales would not mean a shortage. He said: “Don’t worry, we won’t run out.”
He advised people to wait until the first or second week of December.
“That’s when the trees are in their best condition,” he said. “They’re a perishable product. Nobody wants a bare tree on Christmas Day.”
A COALITION of charities and bishops say the Government’s failure to commit to extending the £20-a-week boost to Universal Credit leaves millions in “crippling uncertainty” at Christmas.
Charities including Oxfam and Scope, and church leaders said in a statement:
“The Government has chosen to leave millions of people with crippling uncertainty and fear over Christmas, facing the prospect of being plunged into even greater hardship next year.”
At last week’s Spending Review, Chancellor Rishi Sunak failed to commit
to extending the temporary top-up, currently due to end in spring.
It comes as a charity suggests a year’s extension to debt repayments.
Step Change reports that 1.2 million people are now in severe debt – twice the pre-pandemic figure.