The summer is not over yet, the chestnut tree of Christmas trees - this press article returning every year - is topical.
Thursday September 10, the environmentalist mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic propelled these trees to the heart of the news by announcing that the city would no longer put “
dead trees on the city squares
”, specifying later that “
the dead Christmas tree
”at Place Pey-Berland was not“
his conception of greening
”.
Read also: Petition to keep the Christmas tree in Bordeaux, the town hall is considering a consultation
This position, which did not fail to ulcerate professionals in the sector, but also a good number of citizens and politicians, was confirmed a few days later by the councilor in an interview with
Sud Ouest
.
The players in the fir industry wanted to show what kind of wood they used.
Frédéric Naudet, the president of the French association of the natural Christmas tree thus denounced a media publicity stunt: “
with these declarations, the mayor offers himself cheap media coverage while casting shame on an entire profession and undermines our production and our jobs,
”he wrote in a statement released on September 11.
Le Figaro
wanted to know more about this sector.
First of all, the Christmas tree which is showcased in French homes is not considered as a product from logging but as an agricultural product, recalls Frédéric Naudet, the president of the Association Française du Natural Christmas tree.
“
Fir trees are grown in fields for almost ten years before they are cut.
In France, 4000 to 5000 hectares of agricultural land are dedicated to the cultivation of the fir tree,
”he explains.
“T
he most popular variety of fir is Nordmann, which doesn't smell much but which has the advantage of not losing its thorns (unlike spruce, editor's note).
This variety does not grow naturally in France, which is why it is grown on farms.
In certain regions such as the Morvan, the cultivation of fir has replaced breeding which no longer had its place,
”continues Frédéric Naudet.
This culture is also the source of thousands of direct or indirect jobs in the country.
“
The fir industry represents a thousand full-time jobs;
this figure can be multiplied by four or five at Christmas time because the sector recruits seasonal workers from the local workforce
.
The sector is also at the origin of many indirect jobs: salesmen, distribution…
”lists the professional.
The French still attached to their Christmas tree
A study conducted by Kantar carried out in April 2020 using a panel of consumers representative of French households indicates that nearly one in five households (19.9%) bought a natural Christmas tree in 2019. This is equivalent to 5.8 million trees sold in France last year.
If we add the purchases of plastic trees, the number of trees sold reached 7 million in 2019.
Since 2008 (chronological limit of the study) these figures have been rather stable since they went from 18% to 20.7% for the rate of households buying natural fir trees, and from 5.2 to 5.8 million for the estimated number of trees sold.
On the other hand, the price of Christmas trees is increasing slightly, but continuously, since the average price for a natural tree, which was 22.6 euros in 2008, is now around 27.2 euros (2019 figures).
The total sums spent logically follow this trend, with 116.9 million euros spent in 2008, against 158.9 million in 2019.
Finally, the Kantar study details the places favored by the French to buy their Christmas tree in 2019. Unsurprisingly, it is the large distribution that dominates the ranking, since more than one in three trees (31%) is sold. in a supermarket.
Next come garden centers (22%) and decoration stores (12%).
And the trees in the big places?
What about the giant trees that light up the squares of big cities during the holidays?
These actually come from the forest.
However, Michel Druilhe, president of France Bois Forêt, the national inter-professional organization of the timber industry, explains to
Figaro
that large Christmas trees are not felled in an anarchic manner in French forests.
"
The forests are exploited in a sustainable way according to forest management (for public forests, editor's note) and simple management plans (for private forests, editor's note) which allow forest regeneration and sustainable wood exploitation
", specifies- he does.
The president of FBF therefore explains that "the
large Christmas trees are trees which would have been felled anyway in order to be transformed into beams, pallets or packaging
".
“
Instead of being sent directly to a sawmill, these trees are decorated and displayed for two or three weeks in the squares of large cities to make children dream
,” he concludes.
To read also: 5G, Tour de France, “dead Christmas trees” ... The French overwhelmingly disavow the positions of green mayors
According to an Odoxa Dentsu Consulting survey for
Le Figaro
and France Info, 72% of French people believe that the mayor of Bordeaux is wrong to no longer want to install Christmas trees in his city.
Notice to the interested party.