Did you know your Christmas tree may come from Georgia?

Families across Europe are buying and decorating their Christmas Trees, one of the most famous symbols of the festive season. What many may not know is that most Nordmann trees are grown from seeds which are hand-picked in the Caucasus Mountains of the Republic of Georgia, close to the border with Russia.

It is estimated that half of the 80 million Christmas trees which are sold in the EU each year [1] are Nordmanns [2], and 80% per cent of these come from Georgia, which exports between 25 and 70 tons of Nordmann seeds annually. The vast majority of seeds are sent to Danish tree nurseries, where they start a 7-to-10-year cultivation, before being harvested and sold as Christmas.

The BASF Brussels team wishes you a safe and enjoyable Christmas break and looks forward to continuing to share our Did You Know stories with you in the New Year.

[1] Estimates from the Danish Christmas Tree Association
[2] The tree is named after Alexander von Nordmann, a Finnish biologist who identified the Caucasian fir in 1835.