If you live in Ontario and are hoping to have a fir in your living room for Christmas this year, your best bet is to buy it early.
“One of the things I’m telling people is, go get your tree early, and then you don’t necessarily have to put it up,” said Shirley Brennan, executive director of Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario, in an interview with Global News. “As long as it is in a cool place and it’s protected, then you can have your real tree.”
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She says a wide range of factors have led to the shortage but the biggest factor is a sudden surge in sales.
“In Canada, our sales have been increasing about 20 per cent over the last five years, each year,” Brennan said.
It takes about a decade to grow a Fraser fir into a Christmas tree so farmers cannot just adjust their crops to meet the demand, Brennan explained.
“It’s not like we can just automatically plant an extra field.”
Pair the increased demand with the recession and some harsh winter conditions a decade ago, and suddenly you are left with a shortage.
“It wasn’t just not planting a tree,” Brennan said of the tough economic times a decade ago. “People typically weren’t expanding their farms, either. So when they weren’t expanding their farms, they weren’t able to have that extra property to plant and that created an issue, too.”
There have also been weather issues that have affected growers across Canada around the same time and since.
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“In 2008-2009, Mother Nature wasn’t really cooperative with the tree industry,” she said. “We had severe weather that affected seedlings.”
While there might be a shortage of firs, Brennan says there are other less traditional options available.
“You might have to have a Spruce or a White pine in Ontario,” she said.
If not, “just get it early and that way you’re not disappointed.”