The rising Canadian dollar is taking some of the holiday cheer, and profit, out of New Brunswick's Christmas tree industry.

The Canadian dollar has risen sharply in recent days and currently rests at 96.52 cents US.

Bill Kilfoil grows Christmas trees in Florenceville, N.B., and sells them in the United States. He's been at this business for a long time, and he said the last time the loonie achieved parity with the U.S. dollar it was bad for his seasonal business.

"When the U.S. dollar went to pieces, we all stood there wondering what we were going to do, because all we were getting was the same price in Canadian as we [did in] American," Kilfoil said.

"When that happened we had to go back to our customers, and they're not real big on giving you a lot of money."

The western New Brunswick Christmas tree operation has undergone several changes since the last time the Canadian and U.S. currencies hit parity.

Kilfoil said he's been forced to raise his prices to his U.S. customers.

He has downsized his business and is making fewer wreaths.

Last year, the Canadian dollar hovered near 80 cents in October, but at that time Christmas tree growers found that fewer American wholesale companies were buying trees because of the struggling economy.

Higher dollar hurting exporters

Kilfoil isn't the only exporter who is feeling the ill effects of the rising Canadian dollar, according to the province's francophone economic council.

New Brunswick heavily relies on the United States market, as provincial businesses ship almost 90 per cent of all exports across the border to the south.

Louis-Philippe Gauthier, the president of the Conseil Economique du Nouveau-Brunswick, said businesses are forced to stomach tighter profit margins when the dollar nears parity.

"When the dollar goes up that means what our producers are offering outside of New Brunswick … have less margin to be able to compete," Gauthier said.