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Pining for a tree? Better act fast

‘Incredible shortage’ expected with Christmas still a month away

IRELYNE LAVERY STAFF REPORTER

Finding the perfect Christmas tree to top with twinkling lights and festive ornaments will likely be more difficult this holiday season.

“There’s going to be an incredible shortage,” said Justin Noonan, owner of Trees On A Truck, a GTA-based Christmas tree delivery service.

Noonan said his company started getting bookings as early as August and expects trees to be sold out everywhere by the middle of next month. “I don’t know how much longer we’ll have trees.”

According to industry sources, this year’s shortage can be blamed on a number of things: climate change, the pandemic — even the lingering effects of the economic meltdown more than a decade ago.

“It takes about 13 years to grow a tree from seed and that takes us back to the 2008 recession,” said Fred Somerville, president of the Canadian Christmas Trees Association and Somerville Nurseries Inc., which wholesales about 140,000 trees primarily to Ontario and Quebec each year.

“Now you fast forward to 2021 and there just aren’t as many trees around,” Somerville said.

To make matters worse, the mostdesired species of tree on the market, the Fraser fir — adored for its moisture-retaining, thick, waxy needles — will likely be the hardest to find.

Albion Orchards, less than an hour from Toronto, stopped trying to grow the Fraser fir, which normally thrives in cooler weather with lots of rain and snowmelt, because of climate change, according to Scott Lunau, a farmer at the orchard.

“Global warming is a real issue,” said Lunau. “I’ve been farming here for 26 years and it is real and it is serious.”

Like last year, the current Christmas tree scarcity is also partly the fault of supply chain problems caused by COVID-19.

Even Ikea, a place where customers could find an affordable Christmas tree during the holiday season, won’t have any live offerings this year, due to the pandemic wreaking havoc on its supply.

“With labour shortages and less trucks on the road, it makes things more complicated,” said Angus Bonnyman, executive director of the Christmas Trees Council of Nova Scotia. Bonnyman’s province exports roughly 400,000 trees to the rest of Canada and it’s also facing shortages

With an increase in demand and a decrease in supply, tree shoppers can also expect to pay more for less tree.

“It may be a smaller size, it may be a different species,” said Shirley Brennan, executive director of the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario and Canadian Christmas Trees Association.

Brennan noted tree shoppers in some regions could pay up to 20 per cent more than last year.

And, if you’re looking for a fake tree, both Brennan and Somerville warned that there are supply chain issues for the artificial alternative this season too.

“Be kind — our farmers are doing everything they can to make sure everyone has a tree,” Brennan said.

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2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-26T08:00:00.0000000Z

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