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Danish watchdog takes tree growers to task over prices

The Danish Christmas Tree growers' association has been charged with rigging prices for yuletide evergreens, which cost 20 percent more in Europe this year, the group's manager said on Thursday.

The prosecutor for serious economic crimes in Denmark, the continent's leading exporter of Christmas trees, charged the association this week after a yearlong investigation.

GUIDELINES

The charge handed in Monday came after warnings from the competition authority in 2001 and 2005, urging the Christmas Tree Growers Association to stop giving its members wholesale price guidelines to stop them from undercutting one another.

"We have been charged and I will not comment on the case until a trial begins," said Kaj Oestergaard, the association's manager.

No trial date had been set.

Oestergaard said he was not worried about the charge, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported.

Earlier, the association had blamed a shortage of trees for this year's substantial price hike.

DOWN AND OUT

Danish farmers fell about 9 million fir trees every year, of which about 85 percent are sold abroad, mostly within the EU.

The wholesale price for a Nordmann Fir, the most popular Christmas tree, ranges from US$7.70 to US$57, depending on size and shape.
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