Christmas tree backdrop, Download Christmas Tree. birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. Santa Claus. Merry Christmas

Four years ago, a buyer wanted a shipment of live trees. It shouldn’t have happened because countries don’t allow trees to be imported with balls of soil around their roots, recalls Arthur Loewen, co-owner of Pine Meadows Tree Farms Ltd. in Chilliwack, B.C.
　

Unlikely as it might seem, a Canadian company has even exported Christmas trees to Azerbaijan – a predominantly Muslim country.

Canadian holiday greenery makes its way around the world, but Christmas tree exports have been on the decline since 2006, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada.

In 2003, Canadian farms shipped 2.62 million Christmas trees valued at more than $38-million to other countries, including Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Venezuela and a host of countries in the Caribbean, according to numbers compiled by Statscan’s international trade division.

By 2008, the number of border-crossing trees was down to 1.77 million, but the value was still more than $34-million.

In 2011, the most recent year with totals, the exports had slipped to 1.73 million and the value to $28-million.