North Devon growers experience Christmas tree shortage

dave.tanner@archant.co.uk
17 December 2009

WHAT no Nordmann? Christmas tree grower Louise Hobden, from Threemoor Farm, Bradworthy, has already sold out of the sought after Nordmann firs. Picture by www.guyharrop.com

LOCAL growers have been finding themselves on the sharp end of a Christmas tree shortage this year.

Christmas tree growers at Threemoor Farm, Bradworthy, have already sold out of the sought after Nordmann Firs ahead of this weekend, expected to be the busiest of the year for Christmas tree sales across the UK.

Imports of the Nordmann Firs, popular because their needles do not easily drop, have fallen markedly due to the withdrawal of farming subsidies and weakness of the pound. Normally some 2.5million are annually shipped in from Denmark, although only half-a-million are thought to have been imported this year.

Roger Hay, secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, urged people not to panic and said there were other varieties, including Norway spruces, Fraser firs and Scots pines, being produced by British growers to meet the shortfall.

He said: "The number of Nordmann Firs being grown in the UK is increasing and by next year there will be enough to satisfy demand," he added.