NC #1 Christmas Tree Producer? Well...

North Carolina now wears the country’s Christmas tree crown. Or at least that's what we were told. As we reported recent, when state agriculture commissioner Steve Troxler watched the harvesting of a presidential tree in Ashe County last month, he announced that the state was now the nation’s leader in Christmas trees. The tree was selected and shipped on Nov. 20 from Mistletoe Meadows farm, and Troxler was on hand to commemorate the occasion and celebrate the state’s tree industry.
Troxler said North Carolina has exceeded Oregon as the leading Christmas tree state in the nation, and his remarks caused some annoyance in Oregon, whose tree industry questioned the statement. Troxler came back a week later and said his ranking was based on cash receipts, not production.

Troxler drew on the figures that are part of the National Agricultural Statistics Service data, which reports North Carolina’s cash receipts for 2006 at $134 million and Oregon’s at $121 million. However, the NASS data ranks Oregon number one in Christmas tree production.
“Growers in North Carolina and Oregon recognize that the real competition is not with each other, but the plastic trees imported from other parts of the world,” Troxler said, adding that real trees offer many benefits including oxygen production and pleasing aromas. “Try as you might, you just can’t capture the scent of a freshly cut Fraser fir in a spray bottle,” Troxler said.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Oregon sells about three times the number of trees that North Carolina. Ours just fetch more money.