There's a Canada-wide Christmas tree shortage this year
The shortage has forced some tree farms to close up early.
If you haven’t picked up the perfect Christmas tree already - you may be out of luck.
This year the demand for Christmas trees outweighs the supply.
"We do have a shortage this year all across North America so it's not just an Ontario or a Canadian shortage,” Shirley Brennan, the executive director of the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers, told The Weather Network.
Clembrook Christmas Farm sits on 45 acres of land. With thousands of Christmas trees on the property, the family has been selling trees since the early 90s.
“We have a lot of people coming out here for the first time saying 'I've never cut a tree down' or 'I've never had a real Christmas tree' so it's nice to see especially young families coming out for that,” said Clembrook farmer Brad Clements.
The farm closed its doors to the public on Dec. 11 this year, the earliest ever.
The shortage is the result of multiple issues. Clements says supply and demand have been an issue, but weather conditions around a decade ago also played a role.
“The weather in 2008, especially in central Canada, was really, really hot and in 2009 it was really, really wet. And in B.C. in 2009 we had the massive forest fires because it was so hot, so our seedlings didn't like that weather,” said Brennan.
“About two years ago we had a massive freeze on the east coast and a lot of the mature trees were affected by that freeze,” she added.
A recession about a decade ago also may have contributed to how many crops farmers planted.
“Christmas tree farmers may not have planted as many trees because of the financial unrest, or somebody that wanted to increase their crop didn't lease that land or didn't buy that land and now land prices have skyrocketed all across Canada,” said Brennan.
Thumbnail image courtesy: Pexels.
