Even Christmas isn’t safe from La Niña.

Aussies keen on a real Christmas tree might be left disappointed this year and 2022’s extreme rainfall across south-eastern Australia creates supply issues and sends prices skyrocketing.

Trees shorter than 182 centimetres are selling for up to $200 in NSW, an almost 40 per cent increase on previous prices from last year.

Sydney has been hit by a third consecutive La Niña in 2022. It brought more than 286 millimetres of rain during October alone (a record in a record year of deluges).

The wet weather has wiped out 40 per cent of the crops of Merlino’s Christmas Trees, in Sydney’s inner-west.

“We had way too much water, which caused a lot of root rot,” Robert Darrigo, from Merlino’s Christmas Trees said.

“It wasn’t a very warm year so the trees didn’t grow as much.”

As such, trees taller than 240 centimetres are simply not available this year, despite their enduring popularity with customers.

The family-run business was forced to pull back on wholesale customers so it can serve locals who come into the store.

But Mr Darrigo expected to be shutting up shop and turning away customers by the second week of December.

The Merlino Monterey pine farms, located in Oberon and Ben Bullen in Central NSW, were lucky to avoid the 2020 bushfires. But they were struck by drought after that – and then this year’s repeated downpours.

Running the farms had become even more difficult as petrol and fertiliser prices have risen, Mr Darrigo said.

“Farm life is not an easy one,” he said.

“There’s only so much land that you can plant on.”

– AAP