The cost of living crisis has already squeezed household budgets, with over half of French-speaking Belgians planning to spend less this winter as inflation bites and Christmas celebrations in many Belgian municipalities more modest than in previous years.
The pressure is also being felt by businesses – not least Christmas tree farms who are spending much more growing trees as their operating costs soar. At one farm in Libin, Wallonia, production costs have risen 20%, La Libre Belgique reports.
“Production costs in 2022 have gone up on many fronts: be it fertilisers, staff wages, transport, packaging… everything is more expensive this year,” said Gerald de Wouters, a local Christmas tree producer whose trees are exported across the country, as well as to France.
“A pallet (of Christmas trees), which once cost €26, costs a bit more than €50 today."
Growing costs
Much of the work for producers begins in October. By November, producers are already felling trees ready to be delivered to homes. For reference, a Christmas tree of around 1.75 metres tall will take around 10 years to grow.
Jonathan Rigaux, president of the Ardennes Union of Nurserymen (AUP), says that his industry has not escaped rising costs. “Whether for agriculture, forestry, or horticulture, the cost of fertilisers and products used on crops has exploded this year. The increases range from 30-60%... but some prices have tripled or quadrupled.”
For Rigaux’s own company, the additional cost of fuel adds as much as €90,000 more. Even basic products, such as bamboo sticks used to straighten the top of fir trees, have increased up to seven times.
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The AUP believes that this increase in costs will translate into a 5-15% price increase for consumers. For a spruce, the price may rise by €3 and for a Nordmann, by €9. This may not seem a massive increase for the consumer but represents another inflated cost in the Christmas shopping basket.
This summer’s droughts also had an impact. At one organic Christmas tree farm in Anhée, producers lost 80% of saplings from this year’s plantations and 95% of those from last year.
The producer will be forced to pass the costs on to consumers, with this year’s price for their organic trees rising to €38 for a two-metre-tall Nordmann and €18 for a Fraseri of the same height.
