following pest attacks in North American forests.

They have issued a "buy early'' message to families in the hope of avoiding a repeat of last year's desperate scramble for trees.

The first of this year's shipments arrives on Monday, and the first trees should be available by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Most of the shipment has already been passed by Agriculture Department pest experts, who flew out to Nova Scotia earlier this month to inspect the trees.

Importers and suppliers paid for the trip to avoid last year's disaster, when nearly 2,000 trees were declared infested and had to be destroyed soon after arriving on the Island.

Tempers flared as crowds competed for a few remaining specimens being sold at premium prices.

Sixteen of the 24 containers arriving on the Oleander on Monday are being brought in by the BGA Group. Their 5,500 trees are pre-inspected specimens from Nova Scotia.

Another two container loads are also pre-inspected trees, brought in by Winter-Cookson.

The rest, from other American or Canadian sources, will have to be inspected when they are unloaded, as usual.

Winter-Cookson president Mr. Keith Winter said the company was only importing half its usual amount of trees, due to problems in North America caused by the pine needle scale insect.

He said there was a good possibility of a scarcity in Bermuda this year. Mr.

Kenny Simmons, Christmas tree buyer at BGA, agreed that finding trees had been more difficult this year.

"There are more trees arriving a week from Monday and hopefully there will be enough to go around -- maybe just.

"I don't think there will be a big shortage, but we would advise people to get them early and not take a chance. With the number of containers coming through it's hard to tell.'' Importers had been forced to turn to different tree varieties this year because a lot of the trees that usually came to Bermuda had been affected by the scale insect and condemned.

"It was costly to get them inspected but it's worked,'' said Mr. Simmons.

"The expense is being absorbed and is not being passed onto the consumer.

"The trees will be quite fresh because they have come from a cool climate and I'm sure the containers will have snow inside which has turned to ice.

"They should be in good condition, and if the consumer gets them quickly and takes care of them in the home, they should last well into January.'' Assistant Agriculture Director Dr. Roberta Dow said more than 12,000 trees had been given import permits this year, compared to around 11,000 last year.

"The number of trees that have been given permits at the moment doesn't make it look like there's going to be a significant shortage,'' she said.