Dai Lloyd Jones fears tree growers will be forced out of business

Dai Lloyd Jones will this year distribute 9,000 Christmas trees from his base at Ysbyty Ystwyth, near Aberystwyth.

He says cheaper foreign imports and the rise in popularity of fibre-optic artificial trees are putting the squeeze on homegrown trees.

"Garden centres and shops are selling trees at the same price as they did five years ago but we are only getting half as much money because of overheads," said Mr Jones.

This year about eight million trees will be sold in the UK, but more than a million of those will be imported, mainly from Denmark and Ireland.

And the Christmas Tree Growers Association say two artificial trees will be sold for every natural tree this festive season.

I think a lot of Christmas tree producers will go out of business in the next few years Dai Lloyd Jones

"Another problem is that the Danes have now bought land in Scotland and because labour is cheaper in Britain than in Denmark their trees are being produced cheaply.

"I think a lot of Christmas tree producers will go out of business in the next few years."

Aberystwyth butcher Aled Morgan also sells Christmas trees at this time of year.

"The price of trees has stayed the same for the last few years so all I can say is that the consumer is doing very well."

But as the last lorry load of trees left Ysbyty Ystwyth this week for the markets of Wrexham, the question facing tree producers is whether their profit margins will be large enough for them to continue harvesting trees next year.