Hundreds of fir trees to come to Dubai

Residents in Dubai will not experience a shortage of Christmas trees this December because hundreds are on the way.

A British company is exporting 1,500 fir trees, double the number it sent last year.

The trees were treated before they left the United Kingdom to ensure they keep their needles in the hot weather of the Middle East.

Demand for the trees from luxury hotels as well as from the 100,000 people that make up the British community in the UAE is expected to be strong.

A Yorkshire-based company is supplying the fir trees to two companies in Dubai. Anthony Andrews, director of the firm, based in Bradford, England, said Christmas trees were becoming more popular every year in the UAE.

"We're having more and more success in Dubai. It began four years ago with just 100 trees, and by 2003 it had grown to about 800 trees.

"This year, it's almost doubled again," he said from his base in England.

"There are so many people going to Dubai as tourists, and such a big expatriate population, and they all want to celebrate Christmas as if they were still at home.

"Also, the other communities, including Arab people, are becoming keener to celebrate Christmas, and that has increased demand.

"Last year, I spent Christmas in Dubai and we celebrated around one of our own trees. It was great."

To prepare the Christmas trees for Dubai's hot climate, they were stored at freezing point because this stops them from deteriorating at high temperatures.

The trees, which are about eight years old and were grown in Yorkshire, left the United Kingdom a few days ago and will take three weeks to reach Dubai in refrigerated containers. They are between five and ten feet tall.

"No one believed you could ship trees for that long and put them in extreme conditions. They will survive well into January," Andrews said.

One of the Dubai companies will give the trees away in promotions at its watersports stores in Dubai, while the other is supplying them to hotels.

Most trees are sold without roots so they deteriorate quickly, often shedding their needles and turning brown after Christmas.

The Nordmann fir trees being sent to Dubai were chosen because they retain their needles well. This species is native to the Caucasus mountains and the northeastern part of Turkey surrounding the eastern end of the Black Sea and was first domesticated more than 150 years ago.

They are said to have "lush green glossy foliage" and are the most upmarket and expensive trees that Yorkshire-based company grows.

"It's a very classy tree. There is nothing nicer than a real tree like this it is much better than an artificial one," Andrews said.

Typically, as few as half of all the Nordmann firs Latin name Abies nordmanniana that are grown are good enough to be sold to discriminating customers in Europe.