19 December 2002

In one of his poems, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński came to the conclusion that Christmas trees, like Christmas itself, are a thoroughly poetic creation. Gałczyński's licentia poetica is not required in the Christmas tree trade-it's enough to have an invoice proving that the trees were bought legally from a producer or imported from abroad.

The Christmas tree trade is a seasonal occupation, restricted to three weeks each December. Yet the growing procedures take years of work. The taller, ceiling-high trees of slower-growing species like the Caucasian fir (Abies nordmanniana) have to grow for as long as 15 years to reach the desired height.

The Christmas tree market in Poland is estimated at 10 million trees a year. According to both producers and salesmen, the market has been saturated for a long time, as supply outweighs demand. "If we found enough customers, we could offer even 20 million trees of all sizes without any harm to the forests," says Waldemar Tomkiewicz, spokesman for the Lasy Państwowe enterprise, Poland's biggest supplier of Christmas trees. "We cut down only as many trees as the salesmen order at a given moment."

According to estimates, 20 percent of all Christmas trees sold are artificial trees. The rest come from the forest. Roughly half of these come from Lasy Państwowe. The other half comes from private plantations. These include imports, mainly from Denmark and Germany-estimated at several hundred thousand trees.

Lasy Państwowe earmarks about 2,000 hectares for Christmas tree nurseries. Each of the 440 forestry management units follows its own Christmas tree policy, depending on the local conditions. Trees sold for Christmas are planted mainly below power lines running through the forests. Regulations do not allow higher trees to grow in these areas. The trees grow in 10-year cycles-every year the oldest trees have to be cut down anyway, or they would grow too high. Some of the Christmas trees come from allowances. Foresters living in their lodges have a right to use an area of 1-1.5 ha on which they can grow Christmas trees on their own account if they wish to.

A man-size Norway spruce (Picea abies) is bought by salesmen for zl.8-10 from the forest management. Very robust trees of less common species such as the blue spruce (Picea pungens) can cost as much as zl.50.

Private Christmas tree plantations have developed on a large scale in the last decade. Most are situated in the Mazuria and Lower Silesia regions. Forestry engineer Jan Czart owns the Las Prywatny AB company, which has been operating since 1993 in Łęgajny in Mazuria. Although based mainly on the production of tree and bush seedlings, the collection of seeds and the sale of nursery material, the company also grows Christmas trees.

"We grow Caucasian fir on 60 ha, and the Norway spruce on 10 ha," says Czart. "We import the seeds of the fir from Turkey and Chechnya. It's a long-term investment-fir trees grow very slowly. They reach 2.5 m high after about 12 years, while the spruce does so after seven or eight years." Las Prywatny sells Christmas trees only in wholesale. Prices are the same as those in Lasy Państwowe-the Norway spruce costs zl.7-9, the blue spruce zl.12-18, the Caucasian fir zl.40.

Christmas tree producers talk about the salesmen in jealous tones. Indeed, comparing the wholesale price with the retail price, it's hard not to notice the huge difference-the latter can be up to 10 times higher. A tree bought from the grower for zl.10 costs zl.50-60 when sold in Warsaw.

The costs for agents, particularly the costs of transport, aren't huge. The Christmas tree market is local. The trees for sale are transported no further than 100-150 kilometers from the place they were bought. However, the business hardly brings huge profits, since the Christmas tree harvest lasts no longer than a month.

The producers of artificial Christmas trees don't have such problems with wholesale and retail prices. They sell their products directly to shops whose margins can be counted in tens, not hundreds, of percent. The area round Koziegłowy, a small town halfway between Częstochowa and Katowice, is known as the artificial Christmas tree plantation.

"Christmas trees are produced in every other house here," says a producer from Koziegłówki. "The materials used are special film imported from China and Thailand. It's like a cottage industry, quite slow, and the whole family takes part in the production. But those who have managed to ensure bigger sales begin production in April and are able to live on that. Our Christmas trees are sold across Poland, some of them are exported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They're more expensive than the natural ones, but we protect forests in this way. I sell a 180-cm-high Christmas tree for zl.50, while it costs almost twice as much in a shop," he adds.

The ecological argument for artificial Christmas trees over natural ones clearly irritates Tomkiewicz from Lasy Państwowe. "It's exactly the opposite," he says. "The Christmas trees would have to be cut down anyway. They constitute only 55 percent of the standing increment, while 75-80 percent is cut down in Scandinavia. Due to the sale of Christmas trees, we earn additional money to spend on tree nurseries, growing, the removal of windfall, reseeding and proper forest management." According to Tomkiewicz, although the emergence of private competition has led to lower prices, it has had a positive effect on forest management. The situation in the forests has improved. Theft and illegal Christmas tree felling before Christmas have virtually ceased, although they were common only 10 years ago.

Low wholesale prices and great demand have made it unprofitable for Christmas tree dealers to risk illegal tree felling-the same profits can be made if the trees are legally bought from the producer. "Although in the period before Christmas we monitor all places where Christmas trees are sold, for several years we haven't caught anybody selling trees coming from illegal felling," says Tomkiewicz.

Greater harm is done to the forests by people making stroiki, which in some homes are used as substitutes for Christmas trees. These are made from branches of coniferous trees, mainly fir, and from pine-cones and box shrub twigs. Instead of buying branches of felled trees from the producer for about zl.3-4, poachers cut the prettiest top branches of trees growing in the forest. After such an operation, the fir trees, which are particularly sensitive, wither and die.

Importing Christmas trees from abroad could seem unprofitable with such low prices in the Polish material. It isn't. A trade company from near Warsaw imported 200,000 Christmas trees from Denmark. The company hasn't revealed the purchase price. The Christmas trees are not being sold yet, but their retail price is to be only slightly higher than the price of Polish Christmas trees.

Czart claims that the selling prices proposed by Danish producers can appear to be surprisingly low. This stems from the fact that Denmark has an over 30-year tradition of commercial Christmas tree production. Tree growing is automated to the maximum and very intensive. The Christmas trees "ripen" much faster than in Poland, which is favored by the Danish climate-the annual precipitation is 900 mm (it is 650 mm in the Mazuria region) and the growing season is at least a month longer than in Poland.

"We'll have Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziensii) from our own plantation as the Christmas tree at home this year," says Czart. "It's a beautiful tree, somewhere between a fir and spruce."

Tomkiewicz encourages everyone to buy Christmas trees in the nearest forestry management, and not at a marketplace. "Every forestry management runs retail sales. The selection of trees is much wider and the prices considerably lower than in the city," says Tomkiewicz. After a long pause, the artificial Christmas tree manufacturer from Koziegłówki admits that he will also have a natural tree for Christmas, as he's had enough of the plastic ones from his workshop.

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