Christmas tree shortage blamed on La Nina rain and floods

Not only have established trees died in waterlogged paddocks, many thousands of seedlings have 'drowned' during continual rain and floods.

Rising costs of fertilisers and chemicals have added to farmers' woes, with many of the cost increases passed onto families.

La Nina weather patterns have had a huge impact on Victoria Christmas Tree Farm, owner Alex Costa said.

The Ballarat farm in Victoria's Central Highlands has been swamped with rain this year, with 800.6 millimetres recorded in an area with a long term average of 686.4mm

"Because of the rain and the flooding, I haven't been able to get to about a quarter of my paddock to cut the trees," he said. "I put in 13,000 seedlings and lost close to 5000."

Two COVID-impacted Christmases in a row also resulted in more mature trees being cut, so there's less available this year.

READ MORE:

Mr Costa usually sends his trees across the country, but this year he's only been able to send two truckloads to Sydney for sale.

"There's a national shortage, and fires and floods in NSW have wiped out the tree population," he said.

Tree quality is down at Santa's Shaped Christmas Tree Farm in Gundaroo near the ACT.

"The trees aren't looking as good as they normally do because of the lack of growth," owner Ziggy Kominek said. "When we had the rain, the trees drowned. With the wet weather our numbers are down."

He also lost many seedlings, with around 75 per cent of the 10,000 planted destroyed by heavy rain. While that doesn't impact this year's sales, Mr Kominek will have a shortage in four years' time when the trees would have been mature and ready to sell.

Despite the current condition of trees, he is hopeful some will make a quick recovery.

"Given the warm weather they should be looking better in about a week," he said.

Daylesford Christmas Tree Farm owner Albo Iuele said terrain saved his trees from being destroyed.

"We've had 1400mm of rain, but at this stage we're alright because we're on sloped land," he said.

His property is on the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, and only a small number were left waterlogged with most "looking great".

In South Australia, good weather for Adelaide Hills Christmas Trees means trees are looking "fantastic", owner Steve Roberts said.

"Fortunately we've had so much rain a couple of months ago and the trees are looking the best they have," he said.