No merry gentleman in Denmark

TEXT OF FINAL NOTE

KAI RYSSDAL: This final note …

Christmas can be a time of peace and reconciliation. But I guess Denmark didn’t get the memo on that. Christmas tree growers there have been accused of price fixing. The Danish competition office says prices have spiked 20 percent this year. We called Peter Christensen to ask him about it. He runs a tree farm with his brother about 250 miles west of Copenhagen.

PETER CHRISTENSEN: We are accused of that almost every year. So that’s nothing new.

Denmark is the largest Christmas tree exporter in Europe. We wanted to find out how much Mr. Christensen charges for his trees — the going rate’s about $40 — but he didn’t really give us time to ask.

CHRISTENSEN: I think we are going to stop this now. OK. Goodbye.

[Click … dial tone]

And there you have it. Hung up on. By a Danish Christmas tree farmer. Go figure.