Farmers nationwide expect Christmas-tree shortages this season

High demand, supply challenges, droughts are to blame

ELKTON, Md. (KYMA, KECY/CNN) - Americans are typically more concerned about Thanksgiving plans before they get a chance to think about tree shopping. However, consumers may want to act faster this holiday season.

Christmas tree farmers nationwide expect another busy season, which could collide with recent supply challenges.

"It's surprising how many people do think that you put them in the ground in the spring and you're going to harvest them, you know, November, December," farmer Joncie Underwood shares. "It doesn't work that way."

At her family farm Pine Valley Christmas Trees in the north east corner of Maryland, the journey from planting seedlings is a long one. It starts in the fields, ending in a family's living room.

"Once you plant them out, depending on the type of tree, it may take 6-10 years before you have a sellable tree," Underwood explains.

Through the growing process, farmers have much to worry about, from too much/too little water to pest infestations.

A lot can happen during those 6-10 years. It also means farmers can't simply ramp up supply when demand spikes.

"Because it takes 7 to 10 years for your crop to mature, you don't have much choice about how many trees you can offer," Underwood adds. "More Americans stayed home for the holidays in 2020 because of the pandemic, so Christmas trees were in high demand."

To make things even more complicated, the great recession more than a decade ago put a lot of farmers out of business. This caused some sellers to find themselves with low inventory.

"We were actually about sold out on the third of December," Holloway's Christmas Trees Owner Carl Holloway said. "We had another load of trees come in, and it was gone in a day and a half."

In Southern California, Holloway says he plants about 3,000 trees per year on the same farm his father started in 1958.

"We grow a Monterrey Pine, which is a beautiful tree, but a lot of people would rather have what they grew up with as children," he shares.

And surprising to some, recent California droughts have also added to the supply-chain chaos.

Since Holloway brings in about half of the trees he sells each year from the pacific northwest, his inventory has been directly affected. Tree crops in the region have been hit hard by fires and extreme heat.

Oregon, for example, is one of our nation's top Christmas-tree producers; but according to the United States Department of Agriculture, farmers only cut and sold 3.44 million trees in 2020. This brings harvests down 27% from 2015.

"Because of that, and because of labor shortages and other things, the price of the trees has gone up -- at least 100 percent in the last ten years," Halloway reveals.

All affecting -- holloway's bottom line.

Halloway and Underwood agree that a hectic holiday season has become family tradition. Albeit, this season has become a bit more complicated.

"I love when our customers come in and they say, you know, my child was, you know, a baby when I first started coming here, and now they're bringing their children or their grandchildren," Underwood expresses.

Those deep roots may be a reason to appreciate your tree a little more this year.