the highest quality yew used to come from the italy, spain, or portugal. Yew's almost extinct in the latter two, so we're now restricted to italian yew. Even in italy, quality yew is very rare, and it's a protected species. The few Yew logs, with a decent rpi and straightness, are in high demand. Thus an escalating price.
Since yew is so poisonous, it's almost driven to extinction by the farmers. Funny to see how we humans both hate yew and love yew. What's less funny is that both extremes eventually lead to extinction.
Tumalt, I hope you don't find any political stuff in this very reply. However I'm sure you can find it if you dig far enough. Please don't be so overly (political) correct, or just, don't reveal you are.
Nick