Christmas tree market booming


Oregon produces 31% of the national Christmas tree market, shipping them all over the United States and to Mexico.

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Oregon produces 31% of the national Christmas tree market, shipping them all over the United States and to Mexico.

Oregon’s annual Christmas tree harvest, the largest in the country, is big business. The state grows more holiday trees each year than any other place in America—6.4 million last year…Oregon ships 96 percent of its crop out of state, half of it to California. Evergreens in the Willamette Valley grow up to a foot a year, faster than anywhere else on the continent. And they go all over the continent, as far as Mexico, a country that’s increasingly important to this operation.

Last year, from the first week in November to the second week in December, Christmas trees earned the state’s economy more than $90 million. This year, with hopes that Oregon’s exports will grow to 6.6 million trees, Oregon’s freshman U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley sponsored a Senate resolution declaring last week “National Christmas Tree Week.” Lately, though, Christmas tree growers are more concerned about Mexico—where they get their labor and need to expand their market.

Read more at Willamette Week.

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