A shortage makes Christmas trees a hot holiday in Calgary

Calgarians looking for the perfect Christmas tree this holiday season may have a tougher time with increased demand and lower supply.

Colin Utter, owner of Plantation Garden Center, says two months ago he had zero trees to order because one of his main suppliers stopped shipping to Alberta.

It was determined that he would have no trees to sell this year, but he experienced a “Christmas miracle” when a new supplier was found.

“It was very difficult to get these trees, but I got a little lucky and after a while I found a new supplier who was willing to work with me. “Now we have more trees than ever before,” he said.

“It looks like the U.S. is taking a lot of wood out of the Canadian market, and they're buying a lot of wood because of the shortage in North America.”

Atter said he now has about 1,700 trees and his customers are becoming more aware of the shortage as he sold several hundred this week.

Despite the significant increase in what Atter will have to pay for these trees, he will not raise his prices and hopes to make up for the lost revenue through the additional volume sold.

Other local vendors, such as Tricia Katelitkoff, owner of Cobblestone Garden Center, said her store has been experiencing a supply shortage for more than two months and has only recently been able to replenish inventory.

Cobblestone Garden Center sold half off their Christmas tree tubes this week.

“We buy two hundred trees a year. Normally, it takes until the last week of December to sell, but we got our trees less than a week ago and they are already half gone,” he said.

Catelnitkoff adds that demand has increased dramatically in the past three to four years since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noted a growing number of newcomers to Canada who want to own a real tree and participate in Canadian holiday traditions, as well as fewer vendors and concerns about climate change.

“There were some supply issues with drought and fire and some health issues with some of the tree nurseries around the country, so there was definitely a crisis,” he said.

“Christmas trees naturally grow over several years and as a result several different factors affect the production of the trees themselves. Generally, these trees like lots of light, lots of sun, and enough freeze-thaw cycles throughout the year to control growth and control disease. As a result, we've seen a lot of trees move across the state.”

The price of spruce has increased by 5-20 percent

The Canadian Christmas Tree Association says tree prices are up five to 20 per cent this year.

According to Shirley Brennan, the association's executive director, the reason for the price increase is the increase in the cost of transportation.

“So it's really hindering some of the trees from coming into Alberta because you don't have a lot of tree farms to get your trees locally, so you have to bring them through Canada, so those prices have gone up,” he said. .

In addition to rising prices, wildfires, extreme heat and drought have also affected growers across the country, Brennan said.

“The heat from the bushfires and the drought is a real concern for the young trees, so that could mean some of those trees are gone, and I know there are farms that have lost some seedlings, and that could happen. it stopped growing,” he said.

“So instead of 10- to 12-year-old trees, you're looking at 14 to 16 years for that tree to mature.”

According to Statistics Canada, there were about 1,360 tree farms in the country in 2021, compared to 2,381 in 2011. This means that nearly 1,000 farms have been destroyed in the last decade.

According to Brennan, Canada has lost about 8,000 hectares of spruce farms as growers begin to retire or go out of business.

“I can tell you that in Alberta you've lost 438 acres of land used for Christmas trees, that's 60 Christmas tree farms in the whole province,” he said.