NOT FIR CHEAP
Woe Tannenbaum! A nationwide Christmas tree shortage is driving prices higher, but some retailers say they’re trying to hold the line
“It’s a cyclical thing, and it’s just one of those things like any crop when you’re farming: You have good years and bad years.” Cono Vertuccio Christmas tree dealer
Vertuccio Farms in Mesa is known for being one of the only Phoenixarea businesses that sells lavishly tall Christmas trees, up to 14 feet high.
Customers who looked up at the trees as children now bring their kids to pick one to take home.
But this year, owner Cono Vertuccio couldn’t find any tall trees to buy. So, he won’t be selling trees at all.
“I’d rather not sell than not have the trees we need,” Vertuccio said. “Over the last 18 years of selling trees, we’ve developed some unbelievable relationships,” he said. “I feel a little sense of guilt that I couldn’t provide them their sense of tradition. It’s kind of tough. It breaks my heart.”
Vertuccio is among the smallest of the retailers across the country that are feeling the effects of a national Christmas tree shortage this year.
It started with the Great Recession in 2008.
Fewer people bought Christmas trees, so tree farmers made less
money. Some left the industry, and others invested less money into their farms by planting fewer trees.
It takes an average of eight to nine years for Christmas trees to grow to the popular height of 6 feet, according to cutyourown.com.
“Now, we’ve come to that point where the trees they would have planted would be the ones we are harvesting now. And they aren’t there,” Vertuccio said.
Oregon is the No. 1 exporter of Christmas trees, followed by North Carolina, according to The Asheville
Citizen-Times, which reported that several North Carolina tree farms are increasing prices up to 10 percent this year.
“The cost of freight on the darn things is up quite a bit, because diesel is up,” said Jayne Mitchell, who runs Tim Mitchell’s Christmas Trees in Scottsdale and Gilbert. “I was unpleasantly surprised.”
The nation’s average diesel price was $2.794 in October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In November 2016, it was $2.439, about 35 cents cheaper.
A third factor: Early snowfall on the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, Mitchell said.
“They had some snow real early, so a lot of the places that are replanted and cultured as Christmas tree growing areas, they were unable to get to,” she said.
That means silvertip fir and white fir trees will cost between 5 and 7 percent more, she said.
How much more will trees cost?
Lowe’s said Saturday in a statement to The Arizona
Republic that the chain has not been affected by the shortage.
“In fact, on some of our live tree options, our prices are even lower this year than last year,” the statement said — a move intended to combat the rising popularity of artificial trees.
One of the larger local chains in Arizona, Moon Valley Nurseries, will also have the same number of trees as last year and at the same prices, according to district manager Sal Bracale.
“Everyone is saying there’s a shortage, and I’m sure at some point in the season, we will see it,” Bracale said. “Maybe around the 10th, other lots will start running out, and we will see some of those (customers).”
Meanwhile, some independently-owned businesses are raising their prices this year to counteract rising costs caused by the shortage.
Brian Blake, who owns and operates Whitfill Nursery, said he was charged 30 percent more for trees this year.
“The good part is we have plenty of supply, but I’m paying them more now than I was in last year and the last couple years,” he said.
He said Douglas firs usually in the $30 to $40 range will cost about $5 more, while a noble fir around 8 feet tall will cost $25 or $30 more than last year.
Tim Mitchell’s Christmas Trees will charge about $4 more for its popular 5- to 7-foot noble fir, while larger trees will see a bigger price increase.
Vertuccio said he’s already planning to travel to Oregon in a couple months to secure a 2018 crop of Christmas trees.
“It’s a cyclical thing, and it’s just one of those things like any crop when you’re farming: You have good years and bad years,” he said. “The only big difference with trees is you can’t say, ‘Next year, we need more,’ because they take many years to grow.”