Real or fake? Christmas trees, that is

OTTAWA, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Despite being the second largest land mass in the world after Russia, Canada imports millions of dollars more in fake Christmas trees than real ones it exports.

Statistics Canada said Canada exported $28.4 million worth of real conifers last year while it imported $44 million worth of artificial trees.

Of the exports, 1.77 million harvested trees, or $26 million worth, went to the United States, with the balance going to Aruba, Bermuda, Netherlands Antilles, Panama and Venezuela, the agency said.

China was the source of $42.7 million worth of imported artificial Christmas trees, with the remainder coming from Thailand, Mexico, United States and Vietnam.

As a result, Canadian farm receipts for real trees have declined by 16 percent since 2000, the report said.

At 55 acres, Quebec leads other provinces in the average size of the near 2,500 tree farms in the country.

One UPI correspondent recalled purchasing a small artificial Christmas tree in Tampa, Fla., in the mid-1990s. It was labeled "Canadian fir tree" and was manufactured in China. It is still in use in Toronto.