Tucked away in a beautiful valley, not far from Oakham, is a quietly thriving business growing Christmas trees. Not your usual diversification by many people’s standards, and one that has been tried by more than a few. But John Ellis and his family took the decision to grow Christmas trees in 1986 and now sell more than 10,000 each year. It all started in the early 80s when John bought in some trees and his daughters sold about 70 or 80 with the proceeds going to charity. After discussions with John’s brother – they were partners in the farm at that time – it was decided to plant some trees and see if the business would take off.
Joining the British Christmas Tree Growers Association was the next most important move, says John. “Without their help and advice, we and a few other growers who had started up at the same time, wouldn’t be growing today. The association provides a wide range of support from marketing to pest and disease advice.”
Based in Edinburgh, secretary Roger Hay leads the 30 year old organisation, which has 320 members from all corners of the country. “Our main aim is to promote the sale of fresh Christmas trees by our members,” says Roger Hay. “We’ve seen a fall in imports over the past 20 years, but they still account for about half a million trees in a total market of eight million, and although artificial trees have a strong market, we believe that there’s nothing quite like a real tree at Christmas. The association’s role is also to help farmers through technical issues such as diseases and pests and these, of course, could be changing as our climate changes. It’s something we’re very aware of and are monitoring closely.”
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