80% of American Christmas trees are fake. They're also tariffed | Fortune

"On a recent December day, Mark Latino and a handful of his workers spun sheets of vinyl into tinsel for Christmas tree branches. They worked on a custom-made machine that's nearly a century old, churning out strands of bright silver tinsel along its 35-foot (10-meter) length. Latino is the CEO of Lee Display, a Fairfield, California-based company that his great-grandfather founded in 1902. Back then, it specialized in handmade velvet and silk flowers for hats."

"Tariffs shone a twinkling light this year on fake Christmas trees - and the extent to which America depends on other countries for its plastic fir trees. Prices for fake trees rose 10% to 15% this year due to the new import taxes, according to the American Christmas Tree Association, a trade group. Tree sellers cut their orders and paid higher tariffs for the stock they brought in."

"Fake trees are labor-intensive and require holiday lights and other components the U.S. doesn't make, said Chris Butler, CEO of the National Tree Co., which sells more than 1 million artificial trees each year. Americans are also very price-sensitive when it comes to holiday décor, Butler said. "Putting a 'Made in the U.S.A.' sticker on the box won't do any good if it's twice as expensive," Butler said. "If it's 20% more expensive, it won't sell.""

Lee Display in Fairfield, California uses a nearly century-old machine to spin vinyl into tinsel and produces about 10,000 artificial Christmas trees annually. Tariffs on imported artificial trees raised prices roughly 10 to 15 percent this year, prompting tree sellers to cut orders and pay higher import taxes. Most large-scale production remains in Asia because fake trees are labor-intensive and depend on holiday lights and other components not manufactured in the U.S. Retailers and manufacturers cite strong American price sensitivity, noting that substantially higher domestic prices would hurt sales. Approximately 80 percent of U.S. households that set up a tree choose artificial ones.

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