| ||
 |
||
| Oregon Christmas tree growers target California | ||
| 10/31/2007 | ||
|
Suggested lead Oregon's $121 million Christmas tree industry is targeting California this year as a prime market for its growers: Entire audio file Audio 01 Believe it or not, Christmas tree harvesting is underway in Oregon, the nation's leading producer of Christmas trees. California has always been a major market for Oregon trees, but sales in recent years have become flat. A new promotional campaign in the Golden State will bring an environmental message that answers basic questions from consumers not familiar with agriculture: OSTLUND: "Where do these Christmas trees come from? What does it mean to be a sustainable farm- the farming practices? Produced in the Northwest. From the environmental standpoint, that Christmas trees are like other agricultural crops- renewable resource and being produced just for Christmas trees. They are not coming from the forest." :15 audio file Audio 02 Bryan Ostlund is executive director of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Growers Association. He says Oregon Christmas trees remain high quality this season: OSTLUND: "Christmas trees should be in great shape this year. We had a lot of moisture early. As we all know, fall came early this year but that's great for Christmas trees. They have all the water they want which makes for a healthy, happy tree. So as trees move into to our markets in California, and the south in general, they will be in great shape." :17 audio file At about three and a half million trees, California normally purchases nearly half of all the Christmas trees grown in Oregon. But with such a huge population, there is potential for even greater sales. TV and radio will play a major role in delivering messages this season from Oregon's Christmas tree industry. In Salem, I'm Bruce Pokarney. Additional audio: Audio 03 OSTLUND says Oregon's Christmas tree industry is an extremely big contributor to the state's economy: "Oregon leads the nation in Christmas tree production. North Carolina produces about half the trees we do. We would expect to harvest in our state this year seven and a half to eight million trees. So it will be another big year." :12 audio file Additional audio: Audio 04 OSTLUND says this year's focus on marketing is on California, for good reason: "The California market by itself, we'll ship in excess of three and a half million Christmas trees to California. Just a modest increase in California by itself is very significant to Northwest producers. With a state that represents one of the world's largest economies, California is certainly deserving of our attention." :17 audio file Full story http://oregon.gov/ODA/news/071031christmas_trees.shtml |
||
