![]() ![]() "In good times, more farmers tend to plant Christmas trees, and in times with poor prices, the opposite is the case, " the CTGCE's Christensen said. ( Read more: The ChristmasTree indicator: Myth or magic?) With the average production cycle of a tree from seedling to felling around 8 to 12 years, the success of a crop is heavily dependent on growing conditions and their effect on quality and, eventually, prices. ![]() If each tree retailed at 30 euros each ($40), he added, that would make the Christmas tree production industry worth 2.4 billion euros ($3.2 billion) a year.Ĭhristmas tree production is not without its "pests" and pitfalls. This made the country's Christmas tree export market worth around 1.6 billion Danish krone ($290 million) a year, Claus Jerram Christensen, the current Danish president of the Christmas Tree Grower Council of Europe (CTGCE) told CNBC.Ĭhristensen estimated that Europe produces and sells 80 million trees in total a year. Other countries dominating the market are Denmark, Austria, France, Belgium and the U.K., which is one of the smaller producers.ĭespite Germany's largescale production, Denmark is by far the biggest exporter of trees, producing 13 million trees and exporting 10.5 million of them a year. The actual use of Christmas trees spread from Germany in the 17th-century and the country remains Europe's largest producer of trees, growing 22 million of them a year. "We used to produce around 50,000 trees a year but cut that back around ten years ago - really because the margins for retail trees are so much better than for wholesale - I can make £10 to £12 pounds more for a retail tree than a wholesale one." alone, eight million trees are sold annually, making the market worth £68 million ($111 million) every year, according to the BCTGA.Ĭhristmas tree production can be lucrative for a hard-working grower, but they have to make the most of a confined trading period of just four or five weeks from late November to Christmas Eve.įor growers like Ingram, it made sense to become a retailer as well as wholesaler. growers) of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA). Ingram is one grower among the 350 members (accounting for 75 percent of all U.K. selling around 250,000 trees a year but I reckon my farm, and around 15 other sites, will do around 15,000 trees each a year." "There are much bigger growers than us in the U.K. We're open seven days a week at the moment and we won't be able to take a rest until Christmas Eve," he said. "We've focused on getting our wholesale trees and now we're focused on our retail trees. His larger trees will also be sold to London hotels, university colleges in Oxford and will end up gracing local town centers. His family business in Oxfordshire sells around 7,000 trees a year direct to consumers and a further 7,000 to wholesalers such as garden centers and farm shops. "It's hellishly busy and this coming weekend we expect it to be exceedingly so," Ingram told CNBC. ![]()
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