Christmas tree production  Christmas tree production occurs worldwide on Christmas tree farms, in artificial tree factories and from native strands of pine and fir trees. Christmas trees, pine and fir trees purposely grown for use as a Christmas tree, are grown on plantations in many western nations, including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Australia, the industry is relatively new, and nations such as the United States, Germany and Canada are among world leaders in annual production. Great Britain consumes about 8 million trees annually, while in the United States between 35 and 40 million trees are sold during the Christmas season. Artificial Christmas trees are mostly produced in the Pearl River delta area of China. Christmas tree prices were described using a Hotelling-Faustmann model in 2001, the study showed that Christmas tree prices declined with age and demonstrated why more farmers do not price their trees by the foot. In 1993, economists made the first known demand elasticity estimates for the natural Christmas tree market. Christmas tree farming is a relatively new agricultural pursuit in Australia with the industry only sprouting up within the early 21st century. There are a number of differences in Christmas tree production in Australia when compared with nations in the Northern Hemisphere. The growing season differs because harvest is during a different time of year, this means that lessons learned about farming in the United States and Europe are more difficult to apply to Australia. The seasonal difference also affects the pruning and shearing schedule for the crop. The other primary difference in Australian Christmas tree farming is found in the type of tree grown, "Pinus radiata", which is no longer commonly grown for Christmas trees in the United States and Europe, is popular in Australia. The European demand for live trees reaches about 50 million per year, compared with the demand for about 35 million of the trees in the United States. Denmark is a major producer of live Christmas trees, about 90 percent are exported to other European nations, such as Great Britain, France, Germany and Austria. Denmark exported about 1 million trees to Great Britain in 2004. 2005 Christmas tree sales in Denmark was about kr1.2 billion (US$204 million, €160 million), of this amount kr1.1 billion was in exports. The leading European producers of natural Christmas trees are found in central and western Europe. 2018 estimates indicated that Germany produced 18 million Christmas trees annually, followed by France's 6 million trees, Denmark's 10 million trees, Belgium's 5.2 million trees, and Great Britain's 4.4. million Christmas trees produced. The seeds used to grow Christmas trees in most European countries are harvested in Georgia (90%).