/ 14 December 2006

Christmas trees keep Hungarian hamlet afloat

From the postman to the mayor, nearly everyone grows Christmas trees in the sleepy Hungarian hamlet of Surd in a long-held tradition that has guaranteed economic survival, even in hard times.

Local lore says that Surd, population 650, produces enough Christmas trees to supply half of the capital of Budapest’s two million residents.

Though a likely exaggeration, there is no doubt that this village in the rolling hills of the south-western corner of Hungary is focused on Christmas trees.

“Even my great-grandmother planted Christmas trees. Literally everyone is in this business,” says Attila Virovecz, who holds a job at the state railway company and, like so many others, earns extra income from the sale of such trees.

The extra money is a lifeline for residents who take home an average 65 000 forints (â,¬260) per month from their day jobs, according to Surd Mayor Janos Kanasz — who has his own plantation.

Like many small towns in the Hungarian countryside, Surd was hard hit by the often chaotic privatisation of businesses after the country’s transition from communism to a market-based democracy in 1990, which led to the shutdown of many factories.

“In the vicinity there was a brewery, a milk factory, a soft-drinks factory and a glass factory, and together they gave jobs to thousands and thousands of people,” said Kanasz from a modest office on Lajos Kossuth Street, practically the only one in Surd.

“The brewery, for example, was profitable but it was sold below market value. A few people got very rich and most people found themselves out of work,” said Kanasz, himself a former employee of the brewery.

“The Christmas tree business allowed people to stay afloat during those times,” he said.

Today towns like Surd face different challenges but the revenue from Christmas trees is no less important.

Young people in Hungary’s countryside tend to flock to the cities in search of jobs, leaving mainly older people behind in localities facing a slow decline.

Kanasz said state support for municipalities was also diminishing, with the central government scrambling to cut expenditures and reduce its deficit, the highest in the European Union, which Hungary joined in 2004.

While a neighbouring town was even forced to close its school, Surd has so far managed to buck the trend — largely thanks to the trees.

“The Christmas tree business keeps people here. We have an elementary and primary school and even a care facility for seniors. We maintain these from the higher taxes people pay from their extra income,” Kanasz said.

Residents say the Christmas tree business is not easy money, however.

“All year long, people get home after work and go straight to the orchard and work until nightfall,” said 71-year old Imrene Pentek.

They plant in the spring, tend the trees throughout the summer and sell them in the winter. And this can mean eight years of care for some pine trees before they end up in someone’s living room for the holidays.

Some residents complain this “extra” money is getting less and less, citing increased competition from imported pine trees as well as artificial trees that squeeze profits by keeping prices down.

“For years the price of Christmas trees went unchanged while the costs kept going up, including transportation and the chemicals to treat the trees. If it continues like this, it may not be worth it in the future to continue planting the trees,” said 22-year old Zsuzsanna Tarabi.

But few can imagine Surd without its pine trees.

Even as she spoke, Tarabi was helping her mother upload the last of the trees onto a huge trailer to take them to markets across Hungary.

Two weeks before Christmas, Surd becomes a ghost town, with nearly everyone gone to markets to sell their trees. Those who stay behind organise patrols at night to protect houses from thieves who prey on the abandoned village.

Surd comes alive again on Christmas day, when residents return home with, hopefully, plenty to celebrate.

“People in Surd are always twice as happy about Christmas than others in the country. For us, Christmas is the fruit of an entire year’s labour,” Kanasz said.