Natural Christmas trees in the US, increasingly scarce and more expensive
Time to Read: 2 minute
If you have not yet bought your Christmas tree and you are thinking of a natural one, be prepared to spend more than you had budgeted, because as with almost all products and services, these seasonal decorations also face high prices.
Buyers of real Christmas trees face a choice between not spending this year on these types of seasonal decorations or accepting the higher costs that dominate the market .
Christmas tree growers recognize that consumers will find nothing but high prices this season as costs have skyrocketed and shortages test demand due to drought .
This is how one of the spokespersons for the National Christmas Tree Association, Jill Sidebottom, explains it in a report for CBS News , referring to the challenges that this seasonal industry faces and that, finally, have been transferred to high prices for consumers .
He added that the producing farms have faced problems in solving the shortage of Christmas trees that are required for each season, and said that this is a problem that has been going on for at least six years .
“We have had a tree shortage since 2016 and that continues,” said the spokesperson for the group of producers of natural Christmas trees.
When asked about how much more Americans are paying for a natural tree this Christmas, Sidebottom said there is a variance, as prices move according to the place of purchase and based on other factors.
“Prices vary in different parts of the country and depending on the type and quality of each tree,” National Christmas Tree Association executive director Tim O'Connor added in a separate interview.
“However, we believe that a 10% price increase is a reasonable estimate of what consumers can expect to pay for a tree in 2022,” he added, offering an estimate of increases for this Christmas.
But the news of the high prices does not seem to surprise producers, who know that consumers will have to pay more this year due to higher costs; and neither to buyers, who already expected to shell out more money , according to a survey by this organization.
One of the fears of the Federal Reserve (Fed) in its fight against inflation, which last October was 7.7% in its annual measurement , is that consumers internalize high prices and are willing, without hesitation, to spend the prices that the companies or producers set.
The Fed's argument is that if that point is reached, it will be very difficult to control inflation, since the budgets would stretch as much as the companies mark it.
Scarcity, the other challenge for producers
In addition to inflation, producers of natural Christmas trees face another equally complex challenge: the scarcity of their crops affected by the drought .
According to an estimate from the American Christmas Tree Association, the lack of water has caused tree prices to increase by up to 25% in some regions of the country, according to a CBS report , with prices that They range from $150 to $200 dollars for each copy.