The sharp rise in the Canadian dollar in recent days is not welcome news to our Christmas tree growers who export their product to the United States.

Bill Kilfoil grows Christmas trees in Florenceville, New Brunswick, and sells them in the United States. He has 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."

Kilfoil has already raised his prices for his U.S. customers.

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.

Source:
Christmas tree grower fears rising loonie (CBC)