Ho-ho-ho: Canadian Christmas tree sales are growing

Thursday, December 18, 2014

photo: Christmas tree farming is labour-intensive with growers working from June until the snow flies.

by MIKE BEAUDIN

Ontario’s Christmas tree growers are expecting another year of increased sales.

In 2013, Christmas tree farmers across Canada, including those in Ontario, saw sales grow 6.1 per cent over 2012, a trend that shows signs of continuing this year, says Shirley Brennan, president of the Canadian Christmas Tree Farmers Association and executive director of the Ontario Christmas Tree Farmers Association.

Although she doesn’t have actual numbers, reports from growers so far indicate another robust season, says Brennan.

“Retail sales have been good. Pre-cuts are all gone and trees are going left, right and centre,” says Brennan.

Total cash receipts for sales across Canada in 2014 will likely top $55 million with Ontario accounting for $12 million, according to Statistics Canada. Quebec produces the most trees followed by Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick.

Brennan says there are a number of reasons why growers are seeing an upturn: younger parents who grew up with natural trees wanting to share the tradition with their families; fir trees that don’t shed a lot of needles; and increased marketing efforts that explain the environmental benefits of a natural tree over an artificial tree.

Fred Somerville, owner of Somerville Farms in Everett, Ont., 95 kilometres north of Toronto, cultivates 2,000 acres – the largest tree farm in Ontario. He says consumers are finally getting the message that natural trees are a much better environmental choice than artificial trees.

“People are getting turned back on to real trees,” says Somerville, who produces more than 130,000 trees a year that he ships mostly to Western Canada. “Our sales are up a bit over last year. We had a really good growing season with adequate rains, and temperatures in summer weren’t too hot.”

Ontario has 647 tree farms, the most in Canada. Christmas tree farms in Ontario average between 10 and 20 acres in size and are often situated on property, like the Canadian Shield, that’s not suitable for other crops.

Brennan says the industry isn’t profitable enough in Ontario to allow growers to earn a full-time income. Most work at full-time jobs off the farm.

“It used to be that anybody and everybody with a couple of acres thought they could plant trees and become a millionaire,” says Brennan. But they soon learned that farming Christmas trees was labour-intensive with each tree requiring individual attention.Even with today’s advances in agricultural equipment labour remains a challenge — no matter the size of the operation – because field management can’t be automated as it has been in other agriculure sectors. For example, each tree must be trimmed and its base sprayed individually, mostly for golden rod and thistle. Widespread spraying would damage other trees.
“Some growers cut (weeds) with a lawn mower, some spray with a backpack, some attach to wagons and spray under the trees,” says Brennan. “They are out there from the early part of June until the snow flies – pruning their trees.”

Somerville says he’s one of the few growers to use more mechanized practices because his farm is so big and it takes 10 years to rotate his crop. He says grinding machinery introduced several years ago now allows him to replant in a year instead of two to three years if stumps are left to rot.

Brennan says Ontario growers are also trying to convince the provincial government to treat their industry as a separate entity. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) has them classed as an ornamental grass.

“We have our own issues. We’re trying to make Queen’s Park realize that we bring in $12 million to the economy.”

Unlike growers in Quebec and Nova Scotia who export most of their trees, farmers in Ontario sell mostly through retail outlets or harvest-your-own farms.

Growers in other provinces are experiencing an upturn in exports this year as well, says Canadian Minister of Trade Ed Fast.

“Christmas trees represent a key export for Canada,” Fast said in a recent news release. “Following a decrease in demand for Canadian Christmas trees during the recession in the United States in 2008 and 2009, Canadian tree exports are on the rise, especially due to a Christmas tree shortage in the United States.” BF