NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) -- Americans whose holiday season isn't complete without fine European food and wine are finding they can't get as much Beaujolais for their buck this year.

As the value of the dollar declines against the euro, its purchasing power is reduced. And unless producers or importers of European goods make up some of the difference, consumers end up carrying the tab.

Dollar prices of gourmet products from euro-zone countries are up an average of about 20 percent from a year ago, according to several importers.

The increase is even steeper for some products. For instance, a bottle of Santa Maria Justina pinot grigio that sold for $9.99 last year now goes for $15 as problems with this year's vintage added to woes surrounding the weak dollar.

Because of the sharp price rise, Verdoni Imports of Hawthorne, New Jersey, has stopped carrying the wine.

Anthony Verdoni, the importer's president, said the weak dollar has also led to higher freight costs. Shipping wine from Europe costs about $2 more per case than it did a year ago, he said.

All in all, Verdoni said his small business will not be profitable this year because of the weak dollar.

Despite strong U.S. economic growth, the dollar has fallen more than 18 percent against the euro in 2003 and is down nearly 50 percent from the all-time high it reached against the European currency in October 2000.

"What you really have is kind of a perfect storm scenario," said Bill Terlato, president of importer Paterno Wines International. "This is one of the factors that is completely out of everybody's control."

To maintain market share, the Lake Bluff, Illinois, company has tried not to raise prices this year. But Terlato said gross margins have suffered, and he expects to renegotiate prices for 2004 in coming weeks.

SALES SUFFERING

Most importers have already been raising prices, and some said sales for the crucial holiday period are flagging as a result.

Mark Zaslavsky, president of Miami-based importer Marky's Caviar, said he expects sales this holiday season to fall below last year's.

Because of the weak dollar, his products -- which include Russian caviar, Norwegian smoked salmon and French foie gras -- are "very expensive," he said.

To make matters worse for Marky's, which relies on French imports for about 30 percent of its business, Americans still have a lingering aversion to products from France because of Paris' opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq earlier this year.

French wines also face lower-priced competition from California brands, said Sean Holland, head of marketing for Table & Vine, a wine retailer in Northampton, Massachusetts.

"There is a huge glut of California wine right now," Holland said.

The situation for importers only seems to be getting worse, as the dollar keeps hitting new bottoms against the euro.

The euro, which hit an all-time low of $0.8225 to the dollar in 2000, began 2003 at $1.0490 and now stands at $1.2334. With U.S. interest rates still at historic lows, no one is expecting the greenback to stabilize any time soon.

"People have been very cautious with how much inventory they want to bring in," said John Pierce, president of Vins de Vie, a Spokane, Washington-based importer specializing in French wines. "It's definitely tough to time payments and to keep it profitable on this side."

For its part, Marky's began farming its own Russian sturgeon for beluga and sevruga caviar six months ago.

"We are trying to grow fish in Florida," Zaslavsky said, "so in the future we will not depend on the exchange rate."