Demand for Christmas trees fell by 11% this year

In total, 991,000 New Year’s trees were harvested for sale in Ukraine this season — 8% fewer than last year.

However, demand for live Christmas trees is falling faster than supply. By mid-December 2025, only 39.9 thousand trees were sold in Ukraine. This is 11% less than during the same period last year. For comparison, during the entire previous season, forestry enterprises sold 153.7 thousand trees. That is 38% less than in the 2023–2024 season and almost 25% less than in the 2022–2023 season.

The largest volumes of holiday trees for sale this season are concentrated in two regions: Vinnytsia region — 187 thousand trees, or 19% of the total, Zhytomyr region — 142 thousand trees, or 14%. At the same time, Zhytomyr region remains the leader in land area used for growing conifer trees — 640 hectares. This is almost a quarter of the total area in Ukraine. Over the past four years, this area has decreased by 9%, but even now there are about 1.9 million trees growing there.

The total area used to grow conifer trees for Christmas holidays in Ukraine is 2,753.5 hectares. This is 6% less than last year and 35% less than in 2021. In some regions the decline is especially dramatic. For example, in Ivano-Frankivsk region, the area decreased from 9.6 hectares in 2021 to just 1.7 hectares in 2025.

Along with the land, the number of trees is also decreasing. In 2021, Ukraine had almost 12.4 million conifer trees, while now there are about 7.8 million.

Against the background of a shrinking legal market, the number of illegal cuttings has dropped sharply. As of early December 2025, only 34 cases of illegal harvesting of Christmas trees were recorded. One third of them were detected in Kharkiv region — 10 cases. For comparison, 328 such violations were recorded in the previous season.