Arctic weather could bring Christmas tree shortage

Heavy snow, particularly in the North and East of Scotland and the North East of England, have caused delays to trees being sent out to retailers while the UK is also suffering from a shortage of imported trees.

Royer Hay, general secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association said: “The last three or four days have meant a lot of growers are having difficulty with shipments, particularly in the North and East of Scotland and North East England.

“It is difficult to get in and harvest the trees in this weather but there are also difficulties with transport which means there are delays in delivering this weekend’s crop.”

The Nordman Fir – now Britain’s most popular Christmas tree variety – is likely to be the worst affected with lower stocks and poor exchange rates meaning many EU producers are shunning the UK market.

Mr Hay said: “There is undeniably a shortage of Nordman Firs, which is the most popular tree in the UK, and supplies are very tight.

“It is to do with reductions in production in Europe, we are 3-4 million trees short on previous years and because of the poor exchange rate there are fewer trees being shipped to the UK - instead we are seeing a lot go into Poland and Russia.

“For Nordman firs you will have to pay a bit more, but other varieties will be priced very similar to last year, we saw the prices rise slightly a few years ago but there shouldn’t be any change this year.”

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