Pining for Canadian Christmas trees in the tropics
Posted December 8, 2015 8:18 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If the stormy weather has you pining for some sunshine, sand and maybe some warm waves, you might want to follow the route of the annual Canadian Christmas tree migration.
The $32.6 million worth of fresh-cut trees we exported to the rest of the world in 2014 ended up in some pretty far-flung corners of the globe.
You can wish a “sùk-sant wan krít-mâat” to the people in Thailand who are trimming a Canadian tree, maybe with little Thai chilies. Our pines, spruces and firs also end up having a sunburned Feliz Navidad in many countries to the south of us.
“The US is our main market for fresh Christmas trees, however we also send them to Central and South America — countries like Panama, Curaçao and Venezuela,” says analyst Nita Boushey with the famously festive Statistics Canada.
“We also send trees to Aruba and Bermuda. There have also been some exports of Christmas trees to Russia and the United Arab Emirates.”
So, “eid milad mmajid” to our Arab neighbours this holiday season!
In all, 1,528,705 fresh-cut Christmas trees were exported from Canada to 19 countries in 2014.
Maybe ironically, we imported $58.3 million worth of artificial Christmas last year, mainly from China.
Happy global Christmas.
Destinations for Canada’s Christmas tree exports in 2014:
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Bermuda
Bonaire
Cayman Islands
Curaçao
France
Jamaica
Panama
Russian Federation
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Maarten
Thailand
United Arab Emirates
United States of America
Venezuela
