It is cherry pie season, and Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, the preferred variety for pies.
Nationally, the expected production for this year is 222 million pounds (100,697 metric tons). Lance Honing of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service says that a large portion of this total is due to Michigan.
"Michigan accounts for 182 million pounds (82,554 metric tons) of this total. In Michigan, specifically, producers are facing the largest harvest since 2018," said Honing. In fact, Michigan grows about 75% of the tart cherries and has seen a 37.7% increase compared to last year's harvest.
"We have had freezing issues that limited the harvest. So, with this big increase, it's still a historically very large harvest, and we are in great shape for tart cherries this season."
This year, Michigan is not only leading in cherry production but also has the task of maintaining the national number of sweet cherries, while other states producing sweet cherries are declining.
"The total national number, 355,000 metric tons, technically you could say it increased by 30% compared to last year's production. But if you exclude Michigan, which was not counted in the total last year, there is a 5.9% decrease compared to last year for the other three states we measured in both seasons," he explained.
"This is largely due to the fact that we have seen a smaller harvest or expect a smaller harvest in both California and Washington. They are by far the dominant producers of sweet cherries in the United States."
In recent years, Michigan was not included in the sweet cherry production estimates due to low production numbers. Now that the numbers have increased, the USDA has included the state again in the estimates.
Source: Michigan Today
Image: Black Star Farms
30 Nov 2023
Seven new cultivars have already been released: Narana, Swing® PiSue 192, Habunt, Areko, Polka, Aria® PiSue 161, and PiSue 177. Nineteen new promising breeding clones are currently under multi-site testing and approximately 100 clones are in stage II evaluation.
20 Jan 2025
Chilean agronomist Jorge Astudillo Galvez visited the farms of 15 producers in Mendoza to analyse production conditions and give technical advice, with the aim of providing a diagnosis on how to improve local production to reach new markets.
27 Feb 2026
The U.S. tart cherry industry unveils True Tart™, a certification mark highlighting authentic U.S.-grown Montmorency cherries. The goal is to stand out from imports, boost grower returns and strengthen demand through marketing, research and targeted communication.
27 Feb 2026
CITA conducted a field trial in Aragon, Spain, evaluating assisted cherry pollination using external pollen supplied by Zimex. The study assessed fruit set, pollen vitality and fertility in Albalate de Cinca highlighting yield performance, fruit quality and cold chain management.
