For the first time in the six years since he purchased a Christmas tree farm, Mitchell Boyle was able to purchase seedlings to replenish his stock of trees.
“During COVID they weren’t able to get foreign workers, and they use a lot of foreign workers for doing the clippings and I’m sure various other tasks,” Boyle said in an interview on Wednesday.
“But even prior to that there’s so few companies that are doing the clippings or even growing seedlings that we wanna buy, it’s in such high demand, that you have to be on the list for a number of years.”
He will plant them on a parcel of land on his farm that is now being used as pasture by the horses he raises as part of his trail-riding business.
The previous owner of the farm had the land set up for U-Pick Christmas tree customers, a service he hopes to restore.
Right now, though, he says he is just barely able to meet local demand for trees each year, and the seedlings need six years before they will be fully grown.
Canadian Christmas Trees Association Director Shirley Brennan said many farmers are in similar situations as Boyle, as various factors have led to a nation-wide Christmas tree shortage.
She said there was a spike in demand in 2020 that coincided with many farmers having left the industry the decade prior.
“In 10 years from 2011 to 2021 we’ve lost 20,000 acres of Christmas tree acreage. That is in most part because people are retiring or, God forbid, passing away and they don’t have a succession plan,” she said in an interview on Thursday.
She said her organization is focused on attracting more young people like Boyle to the industry to ensure a supply of Christmas trees in the years to come.
Boyle said entering into the business can be daunting.
“A Christmas tree return is 10 years. So every year you’re paying staff, you’re spraying, you’ve got huge land costs and you don’t get paid till the end,” he said.
The Balsam fir trees that grow in New Brunswick are highly sought after in the rest of the country and Boyle said there is an opportunity for prospective farmers if they’re willing to put the time in.
“I was speaking to a number of (Christmas tree farmers) this week, and they’re sending loads out to British Columbia, the United States and all over Canada,” he said.
“It’s a great opportunity, you just have to have the land and a strong back.”