Last Fall our grower and owner Mark Rohlfs made a Facebook post on some changes in the Christmas tree growing industry. Below you’ll find the link to that post and some expanded thoughts on the subject.

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2316776535228994&id=1922427911330527%3Fsfnsn%3Dmo

The changing landscape of the Christmas tree industry is visible even to our customers, with a limited number of trees becoming available for purchase each year. There are a number of factors leading to that decline, which Mark touches on in his post. Let us take a look at a few of the biggest ones.

The number of Christmas tree growers has dropped significantly over the last decade, from over 1600 in 2010 to less than 500 today. Christmas trees take up to seven years or more to grow to maturity. That is seven years of labor, supplies and hard work before you turn a profit on that harvest of trees. Due to an over abundance of trees a decade ago almost all farmers pulled back on the amount of seedlings they were planting. This happened around the same time as the Recession in 2009.

Little did any of them anticipate the impact that would spread out from this first ripple. Because a large number of farmers have moved into permanent crops like hazelnuts and blueberries, the Christmas tree market is just now starting to really feel the effects of all these changes. T

What does all of this mean for the long term effects of the Christmas tree market? That is what everyone is trying to figure out these days. Throw into the mix the upheaval of every corner of the world with the current Covid-19 situation and we do know one thing for sure. We are holding firm to our decision to grow and sell our own trees for you in the most sustainable ways we can.