“Neil Harris, a mistletoe grower in England, is full of Christmas cheer at the thought of a big demand for his crop this year, due to a ban on imported French plants”
AUCTIONEERS holding the first mistletoe sale of the year are expecting fierce competition today for restricted native stocks in time for Christmas amid an unofficial boycott of French mistletoe.
The first of three sales at Tenbury Wells, Herefordshire, the centre of the British mistletoe industry, is expected to see an influx of buyers from all over Britain after Tesco cancelled a £2 million order from France and other supermarkets hinted that they might follow.
More than 900 piles of mistletoe and holly and 1000 wreaths go under the hammer in the sale which the auctioneers, Russell Baldwin and Bright, said would let them feel the water for the two main sales at the beginning of next month.
Much of it has been supplied by travelling people or gypsies who, for generations, have harvested it with farmers’ consent.
Hugh Robinson, a spokesman for the auctioneers, said buyers were expected from all over Britain, including the Black Country, Suffolk, Liverpool and London.
“As a result of the shortage created by the import ban by some supermarkets, we expect demand to be much higher than previous years.”
Jonathan Briggs, an ecologist with British Waterways and co-ordinator of the first British survey into the plant for 30 years, said Britain relied on imports to stop native stocks being overharvested although mistletoe was now being grown in more areas of Britain than ever.
If the parasitic plant is harvested carefully, it can be removed without killing the host tress, which include apple, lime, willow and poplar. However, that takes expertise and taking too much mistletoe can affect the crop the following year.
Article and top photo from The Times, November 30, 1999