Now that it’s nearing time to take out this year’s tree and sweep up the needles, it might be a good time to note how big a business they’ve become.
After the U.S., Denmark has become the world’s second-largest exporter of Christmas trees, with an annual production of about 12 million trees. Without counting extra items such as wreaths, that added up to about $140 million, and the extras added about another $40 million. Denmark exports about 90% of its trees, and Germany takes about half of them.
Despite being the smallest and most southern of the Scandinavian countries, it has the biggest tree industry. Norway, which used to have a big business, now imports Danish trees. Industry experts says its success in Denmark is due to good climate and soil, combined with economics: It takes about 8 years to grow a tree on 2 square meters of soil, but it’s not labor-intensive, and the product sells after 8 years for more than 8 years of an ordinary crop would bring.
But it’s not all fun and games: not only is some labor required, but also constant monitoring to spot invasive funguses and keep them from spreading. For more, from TheLocal.dk, click HERE
Photo: Vask/Wikimedia
