The 2021 Christmas tree season ends rather badly for Loïc le Calvez, CEO of the company Floval. This company specializing in charcoal and firewood also devotes 10 to 15% of its activity in the production and distribution of Christmas trees. Every year for the past three years, the company has set up for two months on this platform made available by Transports Hautière in Montreuil-sur-Ille (Ille-et-Vilaine). So “hub“, 80,000 trees arrive from production farms before being shipped to distributors throughout the Great West of France: from Angoulême to Cotentin.
A better season in 2020
Christmas 2020 remains a very good memory for the business manager despite strong concerns. A month before Christmas, a decree with the fir tree classified as “an essential product“. As a result, the company saw its turnover increase by 10 to 15% compared to 2019.
This year, two factors seriously disrupt this season which lasts only a few weeks. First of all, the Covid epidemic which is gaining momentum. Several seasonal workers including crop managers are sick. Currently between 2 and 3,000 trees are blocked in the fields after having been cut throughout the Brittany region and in Vire, in Normandy, lack of manpower. In this one company, 70 people are dedicated to the production and sale of trees. The tail of the season will be the most impacted then “than the biggest“has already passed. In this company, the fir season begins around November 10.
A lack of truckers this year
The lack of carriers is also a drag on activity this year. As in all of Europe, a large number of truck drivers are missing. Deliveries and shipments take longer, when they are not canceled.