U.S. market for Nova Scotia Christmas trees softens

The threat of a drought and tariffs are affecting Christmas tree growers in the Maritimes.

With a chill in the air, activity is ramping up in Christmas tree lots around Nova Scotia.

Despite drought conditions this summer that caused some losses – primarily around the seedlings – growers will still soon be harvesting between 700,000 and 800,000 trees for shipments to the United States.

“It’s significant. It makes up close to 80 per cent of the total market,” says Mike Harlow, president of the Christmas Tree Council of Nova Scotia, who noted that was equivalent to $25 million last year.

This year, however, an unsettled U.S. economy is causing a small dip in orders.

“Today we recognize that roughly 10-to-20 per cent decline in some of the orders, the early orders. It’s the economics around consumer spending primarily. A lot of uncertainty if the consumer will have the dollars to buy the Christmas tree, the family tree like they do every year, but there is some concern that there will be a decline,” Harlow says.

Canadian Christmas trees that qualify under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement are not subject to duties when crossing the border but Harlow worries President Donald Trump’s unpredictability will lead to a levy on the export.

“Certainly, we have been watching this and we continue to watch it,” he says. “The industry is relatively small, and it will affect a lot of growers if there’s a decline or a tariff attached but at the end of the day the Nova Scotia balsam fir remains strong.”

Luckily there has been growth in other markets. Asia, the Caribbean and western Canada are all bumping up orders.

There is also expected to be a strong supply locally.

“Most people in Nova Scotia don’t feel like they have a real Christmas tree unless they have a Nova Scotia Christmas tree in their living room,” says Tim Rissesco, a member of the Dartmouth Kiwanis Club, which buys and sells up to 700 trees every year.

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