Local Christmas Tree Farmer talk demand and shortages in industry

Written By PAULA BROWN

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on a number of shortages throughout the year, and with Christmas now two weeks away, local Christmas tree growers are seeing a higher demand for real trees. 

“Last weekend was our official opening weekend and we had probably five times as many people as we had last year on our opening weekend,” said Gary Adams, owner of Adams Tree Farms. “We've had a pretty steady stream of people coming for the last two weeks.” 

Adams Tree Farms, located just outside of Shelburne in the Township of Amaranth, is a family owned tree farm started by locals Gary and Dee Dee Adams. The farm, which was started in the late 1980s, specializes in the growing of both Balsam fir and Frasier fir trees. 

Adams Tree Farms opened their fields up to the public officially on Nov. 27 for this season, and along with other growers across Ontario, they have been seeing an increase in the number of families looking to cut their own tree. 

“On our first opening weekend in November, usually we might have maybe 25 families in the whole weekend,” explains Adams to the Free Press. “It's generally our second, third weekend, depending on when Christmas falls maybe the fourth weekend, that is our busiest, but we were really busy compared to our normal opening weekend.” 

Adams said that he was expecting by the end of their second weekend open to have surpassed their sales from the previous season. 

Speaking to the increase in families attending the farm to cut down their own tree, Adams attributes it to boredom brought on by COVID-19. 

“I believe that they're just bored and tired of sitting around the house,” said Adams. “Because of this pandemic, the social distancing, they don't get too far away from home, so it's nice to be able to get out and roam a little bit.” 

With families flocking to the fields to cut down their own trees this holiday season, the local farm has also seen a demand from wholesale retailers. Adams Tree Farms has previously sold their trees to wholesale retailer and nurseries in the GTA, but stopped in 2004 when they began their ‘Harvest Your Own' operations on the farm. 

Adams said that he has been receiving calls from wholesale retailers from the GTA since the end of October. 

“I've turned down probably 15 wholesale buyers in the last month that wanted to buy 300, 400, 500 trees,” said Adams. 

The Christmas tree farming industry has been dealing with a shortage for the last couple years, stemming from the 2008 global recession, which saw farms cutting back on the number of tree they planted, creating smaller crops. 

From when they're planted, the trees take upwards of 10 or more years to reach maturity before they can be cut down and utilized properly. 

While other Christmas tree farms might be experiencing shortages for customers this year, Adams said that despite the spike in demand, his tree farm won't have that problem.