- Michigan cherry farmers have had several tough years in a row, with local production and low prices paid by processers
- To combat the hard times, cherry growers decided to work more closely together and launched a new True Tart marketing campaign
- 2026 is shaping up to be another tough year
On March 4, 2024, multiple generations of tart cherry growers met at the Townline Ciderworks in Elk Rapids in search of answers.
Over generations, the cherry industry had become an important part of the northern Michigan agriculture and tourism industries. Growers consistently produced close to 70% of the nation’s tart cherry market, generating $36 million to $70 million in annual payments to growers and allowing Michigan to claim title to the “Cherry Capital of the US.”
But by 2024 the industry was facing challenges.
Total Michigan production had fallen from 179 million pounds in 2022 to 134 million pounds in 2023. Prices paid to growers from processors in 2023 had fallen to 22 cents per pound from a high of 49 cents per pound in 2021. Michigan State University research estimates that grower production costs had risen from 35 cents per pound in 2022 to 44 cents per pound in 2024.
Carryover inventories from past harvests, a stagnant sales history, increased imports from European and South American cherry growers, weather impacts and the closing of most northern Michigan processors had collapsed the market.
In the face of those struggles, in that March 2024 meeting and a series of meetings thereafter the growers decided to speak with a more unified voice.
The Cherry Industry Administrative Board, the administrative arm of the federal marketing order for US tart cherries, and the Cherry Marketing Institute, an agency paid by the growers to develop and expand new domestic and global markets for sweet and tart cherries, decided to operate under one president with a combined focus to increase support for the industry.
Amy Cohn, a former nutrition scientist with Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, a department of General Mills, was named Cherry Industry Administrative Board president in January 2025 with that mandate.
From the more unified focus, the administrative board in February announced the creation of a new marketing campaign. Soon, products will be marked with a new True Tart label signifying US-grown Montmorency tart cherries were used.
“That transparency helps buyers and consumers clearly distinguish from imported or non-Montmorency products,” Cohn explained to Fruit Growers News in March 2026. “Differentiation builds trust. Trust builds demand. And demand supports grower returns.”
Leisa Eckerle Hankins, a fifth-generation Leelanau County cherry farmer and owner of Benjamin Twiggs, the original cherry store in Traverse City, organized that first March 2024 meeting. She applauds the new branding efforts and believes there is still a chance for a good year and better future.
“Going into 2026, we are sitting in a good space,” she said.
But there are signs of lingering troubles.
The 2025 tart cherry harvest was hit hard in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties by late spring frosts.
Cherry Industry Administrative Board data says Michigan tart cherries represented only 57% of the total US output last year, with a 109 million pound harvest, compared to 178 million pounds the year before. Northwest Michigan saw a 67% decline in production, from 101 million pounds in 2024 to 34 million pounds in 2025.
The good news? That drop in production, combined with similar drops in imported cherries, resulted in a sharp decline in the available national inventory. That drove prices paid by processors to growers as high as 60 cents per pound.
That was welcome news to growers such as Paul Hubbell, a third-generation cherry farmer in Whitewater Township, north of Traverse City.
Hubbell admits that his family was lucky last year because their frost damage was not as severe as many. They took a smaller-than-normal harvest to market but captured the higher prices offered by the processors.
Hubbell is cautiously optimistic for a better 2026.
“There will not be a big crop in the United States this year,” he said. “Utah had freeze damage. The west central Michigan crop had significant freeze damage. Because of that damage, we are already being told by processors that they will match the 2025 higher prices for the available 2026 harvest.
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
