Jackieinpdx's Blog

As I sat in my car Saturday waiting for the light to turn green three trucks with huge trailers full of Christmas trees drove by on the HWY 224. There are 188 business listings in the Oregon State Business directory for Christmas tree farms. If I were to guess by looking at the list of Christmas tree farms in that directory more than ¾ of them are within 10 – 25 miles of my house.

When I was on Isla a few years ago just after Thanksgiving there were two pathetic looking Christmas trees left for sale at Super San Francisco. They were extremely dry with needles dropping like crazy. I said to the two women in the store with me that I bet those trees came from Oregon. I looked at the tags and sure enough they came from a tree farm about 20 miles from where I live. Those trees traveled somewhere around 2,650 miles to end up in someone’s home on Isla Mujeres.

According to a recent article on Forbes.Com:

Mexico top export for Oregon Christmas trees

Mexico is again the top export market for Oregon Christmas trees this year.
Oregon Department of Agriculture officials say the state remains the nation’s top producer of Christmas trees and expects to sell as many as 8 million trees this holiday season.
Trees are already headed for Pacific Rim countries, Puerto Rico, and other faraway markets. About 13 percent of this year’s harvest is expected to be shipped to Mexico.
Domestic sales are expected to be stable despite the national economic meltdown.
Industry officials say they actually see more Christmas tree sales during a soft economy.

I am glad to hear that the Christmas tree sales are looking good for the state. While it is only seasonal and a short season at that, the small boost in the economy is certainly needed. Depending on which unemployment statistic’s site you look at Oregon is stacked either 41 or 43 out of the 50 states. 1 is good, 50 is bad.

Here is another news snippet I came across when researching this post that confirms the Forbes article:

BANKS, Ore. (AP) – Oregon’s Christmas tree growers have a cheery holiday outlook despite all the bad economic news. They figure people won’t be traveling so much this year, and they’ll want a tree of their own.

And growers say some trends are working their way: Lower fuel costs makes it cheaper to harvest by helicopter. There’s no shortage of trucks to move the trees. And the downward trend in tree prices seems to have bottomed out.

Oregon is the nation’s top Christmas tree state. There are about 1,500 growers.

(Hhmm, but only 188 of them list with the state’s business directory?)

Filed under: Holidays, Oregon | Tagged: christmas tree farms, harvesting christmas trees, oregon unemployment |