merrion street

Minister of State’s appeal to ‘support local forestry owners and farmers’

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Shane McEntee has urged families and households to "keep their money at home and support local forestry owners and farmers by buying home grown Christmas trees". He said:

"Christmas is a time for families and children to celebrate but we can also make it an opportunity to put something back into our local communities by shopping and buying locally. This is particularly true when the choice is between a fine, locally-grown Christmas tree and an artificial imported tree manufactured in a distant country".

The Christmas tree market is worth €15 million to Irish forestry owners and farmers. Between now and Christmas around 100 growers will harvest 700,000 trees for sale on the domestic and export markets. About 300,000 of those will be exported, mainly to the UK and France. Christmas trees are grown mainly in counties Wicklow, Wexford and Carlow but also in counties Kerry, Tipperary, Roscommon and Dublin. 

The Christmas tree selling season in Ireland commences in November for the commercial market (shops, hotels, etc.) and trees for household use appear on the market from the last week of November. They are sold from garden centre outlets, supermarkets, DIY sheds, hardware shops and a variety of other retail outlets.

Minister McEntee visited Mr Joe Gogarty’s premises in Kilmainhamwood, county Meath, to see for himself how sales of Christmas trees are progressing.