Christmas Tree Shortage
Oregon City, Or. – An Oregon Christmas tree grower says there will be a shortage of Christmas trees in the Northwest this year. Ken Cook from McKenzie Farms says “there will be a million trees short this year. In other words, the demand will exceed supply by one million trees this year in the Northwest.”
He says there was a glut of trees 10 years ago and many farmers stopped planting trees. He says “there used to be well over 100 million trees in the ground in Oregon and Washington 10 years ago. He says “today there’s only 45 million trees in the ground in Oregon and Washington.” He says there are 135 growers today compared to more than 350 ten years ago.
Cook is well into harvesting his crop. He sent trees to Asia last week and is now preparing shipments to Canada and Mexico. He expects to ship 900,000 Christmas trees from 197 farms in the Willamette Valley this season.