Christmas tree growers will pay an assessment for the first time this holiday season to the National Christmas Tree Promotion Board.
Industry Communication and Program Director Marsha Gray said the 15-cent assessment has been years in the making. “The industry has certainly seen a decrease in sales—in the number of trees we’re selling to customers and then obviously the number of trees that we can grow.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack last January appointed the first board which will use assessment dollars for promotions and research of real Christmas trees.
“We don’t go to any central processor," Gray said. "They’re not weighted, they’re not measured, they’re not processed. Christmas trees are harvested individually, they’re sold individually by the farms so it’s really a self-reported system.”
Gray says growers selling under 500 trees will not be assessed the 15 cents, but imports will be assessed for growers over the 500-tree threshold.
Source: www.brownfieldagnews.com