Forget PERFECT
Christmas tree supplies a bit tighter than usual
MONTPELIER, Vt. — People may need to trim back their Christmas tree expectations this year.
A tight supply means some shoppers will be paying more and searching longer for that perfect Christmas tree this holiday season, though there’s no need for panic buying.
The yuletide market imbalance was created a decade ago when a glut of Christmas trees and the Great Recession combined to drive many growers out of business. Now the supply is tight and it takes eight to 10 years — the time needed to grow a Christmas tree — to boost the supply.
“It’s bad. It’s the worst I’ve seen in a long time,” said Matthew LaCasce, co-owner of the Finestkind Christmas tree farm in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine. The farm sells about 10,000 trees each season and is turning down orders every day from desperate retailers, LaCasce said.
Larger retailers are doing just fine, officials say. It’s the smaller charitable organizations, school groups, and mom-and-pop operators that have had to scramble for trees.
In Hawaii, Christmas tree seller Richard Tajiri said he ended up 1,000 trees short this season.
“It’s going to be tough for everybody. There’s nothing you can do about it,” said Tajiri, who is fielding several dozen calls a day in Honolulu.
Lovell’s Florist and Nursery in Medford, Massachusetts, resorted to a hodgepodge of suppliers from Canada, North Carolina and the West Coast because the regular wholesaler couldn’t deliver, owner LaVerne Lovell said.
“It was about two days of complete panic,” she recalled. “The Christmas season carries us through the winter. If we don’t have any trees, it would’ve been a real nightmare.”
Supply and demand problems are nothing new. Like other crops, Christmas trees are a commodity that goes through cycles from too few trees to an oversupply. But regional factors are exacerbating the problem.
A shortage of Fraser trees, the most popular on the East Coast, had some North Carolina buyers scrambling to find balsam firs in New England, for example. In Oregon, some people are taking Fraser fir trees from the East instead of noble firs that are the most popular tree on the West Coast.
“Supply and demand seem to always be in some flux,” Chal Landgren, a Christmas tree specialist and professor at Oregon State University, said via email.
All told, U.S. consumers are expected to buy about 27 million trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Most people will find what they want, but prices could be a bit higher than last year’s average retail price of about $75, said Tim O’Connor, the association’s director.