Christmas tree shipments started a couple of weeks ago, and in some areas this puts a crunch on truck available for hauling fresh produce.
While fresh fruits and vegetables typically pay better than dry freight, the annual shipments of Christmas trees means even higher paying rates – sometimes 10 to 20 percent more. The downside is some trucker don’t like hauling the trees because they can damage in the inside walls of the trailer. Still produce shippers say it’s more difficult finding enough trucks for fresh produce hauls, especially if you are located in one of the leading states for Christmas tree production.
Christmas tree shipments are rapidly increasing in volume and will actually continue until two or three days before the December 25th observance of the birth of Christ.
Here’s the leading Christmas tree shipping states, based on 2012 USDA numbers: 1 – Oregon, 6.4 million; 2 – North Carolina, 4.2 million, 3 – Michigan, 1.7 million; 4 – Pennsylvania, 1 million; 5 – Wisconsin, 611,000; 6 – Washington, 587,000; 7 – Virginia, 478,000; 8 – New York, 274,000; 9 – Maine, 195,000; and 10 – Connecticut, 159,000.
Christmas trees are grown for sale in 45 U.S states on 174,000 acres of land in the United States.
About 24.5 million live Christmas trees were purchased in 2012, down from 30.8 million in 2011, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Of those, 85 percent were pre-cut and 14 percent were harvested at cut-your-own enterprises. In the same year, 24 percent of Christmas trees were sold from cut-your-own tree farms and another 24 percent from chain stores. Significant percentages of Christmas trees were also sold from retail lots (15 percent), nonprofit groups (15 percent) and nursery/garden centers (11 percent).
Bustard’s Christmas Trees in Lehighton, PA. has been selected to provide the national Christmas tree this year. The tree chosen is a Fraser fir to be used in the White House Blue Room this coming holiday season. The tree stands 19 feet tall and measures about 11 feet wide. The Bustard family has been in the Christmas tree business over 85 years.