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ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — With fuel and production costs going up, the prices of Christmas trees will also increase this year.
What You Need To Know
According to The Real Christmas Tree Board, tree growers saw an input increase of 10 to 21% in 2022.
The owner of Pinetop Farms in Rowan County, Bryce Kepley, says he is seeing the impacts as he maintains his 20-acre Christmas tree farm.
"Diesel fuel is sky high," Kepley said. "I have two small Kubota tractors, and each time I go and fill five gallons of diesel fuel in, that hits my checkbook pretty hard."
Kepley grows white pine, scotch pine, blue ice and leyland cypress trees. At Pinetop Farms, families pick and cut their own trees off the lot. Kepley says it can be a cheaper option compared to buying the Fraser fir trees he has shipped in from the Appalachian Mountains.
"Fraser fir, of course, is going to be more expensive because of the transportation costs and the cost of the trees themselves," Kepley explained.
He says growing his own trees is also costly, but he can have more control over the price. Although, he doesn't know by how much, Kepley's prices will go up.
"It's just the nature of the thing," Kepley said. "I always like to keep my prices down, because I like to consider this as a family get-together, especially for the customer families. So, I think about them and try to keep the prices as low as I possibly can and sometimes I might even go in the hole."
Slim Flocked Christmas Tree According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the median price for artificial trees and real trees was about the same in 2021 at $70. Customers should expect the same this year.