Production History
The production of natural Christmas trees in Canada developed similarly to that of the United States. Into the 1930s nearly all Canadian Christmas trees were harvest from native stands within local forests. Demand for Christmas trees continued to rise and the interest in Christmas tree cultivation increased with it.
Around 40 million Christmas trees are cut every year in North America, of that number between 3 and 6 million are cut from Canadian Christmas tree farms and native pine and fir stands annually. The nation's top three producers of Christmas trees, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, account for around 80 percent of all Canadian Christmas tree production. About half of the total harvest is exported each year, mostly to the United States but also to the Caribbean and Central America. Between 1995 and 1997 Canadian Christmas tree exports to Germany increased 380 percent.
In 1995, there were about 126,000 acres (510 km2) of land, divided over 4,077 farms, in production with Christmas trees in Canada. Five provinces vied for the title of Canada's top Christmas tree producer, three of which were close to each other in terms of percentage of the total national acreage devoted to the crop. The leading provinces in 1995 were Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick. Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario all accounted for 22–24 percent of the total national acreage used by Christmas tree production, and together the five leading provinces accounted for 95 percent of all land in production with the crop nationwide. The 1995 total crop numbered 3.2 million trees cut, Quebec provided 32.5 percent of the total trees harvested.
Nearly a decade later, in 2004, Canadian Christmas tree production was at 3.9 million trees cut, a 0.3 percent decrease over the preceding 10 years. The 2004 crop was worth around $62 million, 36.2 million of which came from the 2.5 million trees Canadians exported. The 2004 Christmas tree harvest represented a 3.3 percent decrease when compared to 2003. Overall, between 2000 and 2010 Canadian tree farmers saw revenue decline 12 percent.
Read more about this topic: Christmas Tree Production In Canada
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