With Christmas less than three weeks away, folks have been battering down the pavement making lists and checking them twice in preparation for the festive season.
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The hottest commodity, the live Christmas tree, is becoming more and more popular each year, yet suppliers are few and far between.
Two Christmas tree farmers are within 50 kilometres of the ACT, servicing Queanbeyan, Yass Valley, and the Upper Lachlan, with people coming from as far as Sydney and Wagga to purchase trees.
The Christmas Tree Keng, which is the closest farm to Canberra at 30 kilometres away, sold its final tree two weeks ago and in only four days of opening for the season.
While regular customers are disappointed, owner of the 30-acre property on Shingle Hill Road says he has been trying to phase out his business ahead of his retirement.
Keng Tan describes it as a transitional time, having turned 70 this year he was ready to hang up the tree business.
“My kids have just told me, now that I am retiring that they will be taking over,” he said. “So the trees grow on a five-year rotation cycle. In around four to five years, we will be able to keep up with the demand.”
Despite needing the break, Mr Keng said it was unfortunate that his customers are disappointed.
“I have been doing this for 30 years and it’s really hard work,” he said. “People don’t understand the challenges that farming brings. Going from a 10-year drought to a season of flooding where some trees have drowned is hard – I will miss the excitement of families picking their favourite tree in the paddock and the excitement of bringing them home to decorate.”
Ziggy Kominek from Santa's Shaped Christmas Trees, a 200-acre farm in Gundaroo, said despite demand he has enough to cater for the broader region and the ACT combined, being the only other Christmas tree farmer in the area.
“We have around 4000 trees to sell this year and I think we’ll have plenty left over at the end of the season,” he said.
Thirty-five per cent of the property’s 200-acres is under trees.
“We have trees harvested for our white Christmas period in July and some do buy them all year round for events and what-not, but Christmas is obviously our biggest selling period.”
While having been in the industry for over 10 years, Mr Kominek say that demand for live Christmas trees is growing.
“People like the fresh smell of pine in small apartments, they like things fresh and live, I think it makes people feel more like Christmas,” he said.
Yet, while demand is growing, the industry isn’t and few farmers are left to cater the market.
“People are flocking to the stand but farmers aren’t flocking to the grounds,” he said. “Luckily, we have plenty of trees to go around and have 50,000 in the ground ready for the next years rotations. We will keep growing and keep up with the requests so no one goes without a tree at Christmas.”