By Emma Ricketts of RNZ
Wherever you buy your Christmas tree this year, you might notice it is a little dearer than it was 12 months ago.
In the main North Island centres you could be looking at as much as $100 for a tidy, shaped 2m pine.
But down south or in the regions, that same tree might cost only $40.
So, why the difference?
Mitchell Campbell, who co-owns Fresh ‘n’ Bushy Christmas Trees in Wellington, said it was partly due to South Island sellers having the land to grow them on.
“These aren’t the old days when you would be using forestry thinnings or branches in your living room. Christmas trees these days are properly farmed, manicured, sprayed and looked after. That takes up a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of space.
“So if land is cheaper, it does tend to be cheaper to grow the trees.”
It was still possible to get cheaper trees, but they would be lower in quality, Christchurch-based Needle Fresh Christmas Trees farm’s Andrew McAllister said. If people wanted a properly shaped tree, that would come at a price.
“You still get your weekend-warrior-type sellers who will go up to Balmoral Forest and find somewhere on the side of the road where there’s regenerating wilding pine, but they’ll be trees that you could fly a flock of birds through.
“Our trees are more solid and dense – which obviously means they take longer to harvest because we keep cutting foliage to promote multi-branching to get that shape.”
The cost of doing this was rising, McAllister said.
“We’re paying more for electricity now, when we need to put water on.
“The seedling price has gone up about 50% and weed control applications have gone up over 100%. Labour costs used to be $15 or $16 an hour for some young guys, but they’re much higher now.”
Mike Fuyala, the managing director of Misa Christmas Trees – a four-generation family business growing trees in urban Auckland – agreed.
“All our costs have risen including diesel, truck maintenance, fertilisers and fungicides, wages and trees,” he said.
“Likewise on the retail side, we spend quite a lot of time helping people find the right tree, securing it for them, being online around the clock to process order changes and questions, and working late to provide next-day delivery.”
In some parts of the country, there was limited space to grow the trees and they had to be trucked in. Wellington’s Fresh ‘n’ Bushy got its trees from a range of forests in the North Island.
“We have had a few growers actually close up shop close to the Wellington area,” he said, citing their own former farm as an example.
“We’ve stepped in to fill the need for the community, but then you’re paying to get them here too.”
And – just like growing the trees – that was more expensive now.
“Minimum wage has gone up, truck hireage has gone up and most of our staff are under 21, so we have to pay higher insurance premiums for them to drive the vehicles,” Jacqui Thorpe, co-owner of Mike’s Christmas Trees in Auckland, said.
But something on which most growers agreed was that they did not want to be increasing the prices of their trees.
“We could so easily put our prices up more and I know we could. But everyone’s struggling with inflation at the moment and I don’t want to be a part of that if I can help it,” McAllister said. His trees are $45 for anything over 1.8m.
“We’re probably a little bit cheap for the amount of work that goes into them, but it’s not all about money is it?” Neville Smith, who owns Pickapine Christmas Trees in Takanini, said. A decent-sized tree from his farm is $70.
Dunedin grower John Munro sells his trees for about $10 a foot.
“From us, a 6ft tree is about $60,” he said.
“I don’t want to go too dear because I think it’s all about Christmas spirit. You want it to be affordable for everyone and not just people with money.”
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