Map: where Christmas trees are grown in Canada

Dec 14, 2014
311 words
2 minutes

By Carys Mills

The Canadian farmers who grow Christmas trees every year collectively sell their festive forests to Canadians, Americans and people much further away.

Canada’s Christmas tree farms are concentrated in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and New Brunswick, according to the 2011 Census of Agriculture.

Statistics Canada’s own map shows that provincial concentration, including the majority of farms being in Ontario, in 2011.

Canadian Geographic made our own map of more than 320 Christmas tree farms, based on current listings from Canadian Christmas tree associations, co-ops and phone directories. Our map shows similar concentration now among those listed farms:

Here’s a by-the-numbers look at Christmas tree farming in Canada (all information from Statistics Canada):

2,381: Farms that grew Christmas trees in Canada in 2011.

647: Christmas tree farms in Ontario in 2011.

54.4 acres: Average area of land per Christmas tree farm in Quebec in 2011. On average, Quebec has the largest Christmas tree farms.

$27.9 million: Value of fresh-cut Christmas trees exported from Canada to the rest of the world in 2013.

$25.5 million: Value of fresh-cut Christmas trees exported from Canada to the U.S. in 2013.

1,574,847: Number of fresh-cut Christmas trees exported from Canada in 2013.

1,535,836: Number of fresh-cut Christmas trees exported from Canada to the U.S. in 2013.

17: Other countries where fresh Christmas trees were exported to. (Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, France, Jamaica, Japan, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Russia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.)

$15.3 million: Value of Christmas tree exports in 2013 from Quebec, the province that exported the most trees last year.

$55 million: Value of artificial Christmas trees imported to Canada from China in 2013, up for $48.5 million the year before.

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