Source : Perth Now news
Amazon has signed a deal with Australia’s largest Christmas tree farm and will be delivering the festive foliage across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The deal means six-foot-tall radiata pine trees grown in country Victoria can be ordered and delivered to front doors in Australia’s three largest cities.
The trees come from the Yeowarra Tree Farm, 120km southeast of Melbourne, and come via Amazon’s contracts with family-owned grocer Harris Farm Markets.
Yeowarra farm manager Josh Sutherland will oversee the felling of 80,000 trees in the coming weeks.
“I love Christmas, absolutely. I think it’s a great time of year. I think I was raised that way. Mum absolutely loves Christmas and it rubbed off on all of us in the family,” he said.
“We do have a retail spot on farm, where people can come and grab their tree.
“When you get to work out there, and see all the families and the kids running around and how happy everyone is — it does help when you’ve got a job that brings smiles to people’s faces.”
Yeowarra Tree Farm is the largest in the country, Mr Sutherland said, and 80,000 trees would be cut this year from an unirrigated 103ha patch. Elsewhere, they tend to beef cattle and grow berries.
The farm has stayed in one family for 40 years, and the Amazon deal is not an exclusive offtake agreement.
“We are consistently growing and then hopefully this Amazon deal can really help push that along,” Mr Sutherland said.
Given the tree’s temporary life span, customers cannot pick their exact delivery date, but tress will be delivered from November 27 to December 13.
The trees should last four to six weeks after they are cut, but need to be watered and kept out of direct sun.
Amazon Prime members will pay $199 including delivery, and non-members will pay $249.
“I think the industry as a whole is growing as well, which is really important for us, and I think this Amazon deal will really open it up to a lot more customers.”
The tree farmer describes the radiata as particularly hardy plants, which have been well watered with wet conditions of late after two particularly dry years.
Bushfires tore through huge portions of the Victorian countryside earlier this year.
“From October last year, the two years before that were very, very dry. I know there’s a lot of issues going through a lot of farms, really everywhere across southern and eastern (Australia).
“That was a bit nerve-racking, especially for the younger trees. The older stuff’s pretty well established.
“A lot of dairy farms and cattle farms had a very tough time. We’re quite lucky that we’re predominantly trees and they’re pretty hardy.”
The coming El Nino effect over summer would make the harvest cutting and moving around the farm easier, he said.
