11/07/07 Ready for Christmas?

Ready for Christmas? I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Halloween is juts over and Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away and believe it or not, Christmas tree harvesting is underway in Oregon, the nation's leading producer of Christmas trees. California has always been a major market for Oregon trees, but sales in recent years have become flat. A new promotional campaign in the Golden State will bring an environmental message that answers basic questions from consumers not familiar with agriculture: OSTLUND: Where do these Christmas trees come from? What does it mean to be a sustainable farm- the farming practices? Produced in the Northwest. From the environmental standpoint, that Christmas trees are like other agricultural crops- renewable resource and being produced just for Christmas trees. They are not coming from the forest. Bryan Ostlund is executive director of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Growers Association. He says Oregon Christmas trees remain high quality this season. OSTLUND: Christmas trees should be in great shape this year. We had a lot of moisture early. As we all know, fall came early this year but that's great for Christmas trees. They have all the water they want which makes for a healthy, happy tree. So as trees move into to our markets in California, and the south in general, they will be in great shape. At about three and a half million trees, California normally purchases nearly half of all the Christmas trees grown in Oregon. But with such a huge population, there is potential for even greater sales. TV and radio will play a major role in delivering messages this season from Oregon's Christmas tree industry. Ostlund says Oregon's Christmas tree industry is an extremely big contributor to the state's economy. OSTLUND: Oregon leads the nation in Christmas tree production. North Carolina produces about half the trees we do. We would expect to harvest in our state this year seven and a half to eight million trees. So it will be another big year. Ostlund says this year's focus on marketing is on California, for good reason: OSTLUND: The California market by itself, we'll ship in excess of three and a half million Christmas trees to California. Just a modest increase in California by itself is very significant to Northwest producers. With a state that represents one of the world's largest economies, California is certainly deserving of our attention. There are 775 growers in Oregon and 300 in Washington. The Douglas Fir makes up 52% of the Christmas trees, Noble Firs at 36%, Grand Fir only 5%. Interestingly it takes from 7 to 12 years to grow an average 6 foot tree depending on type. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.