The Cherry Capital’s Hardest Years: What’s Happening to Northwest Michigan’s Tart Cherries

Drive along M-37 up the narrow spine of Old Mission Peninsula or wind down M-22 through Leelanau County in mid-May, and you’re surrounded by rolling orchards bursting into white blossoms against the deep blue water of Grand Traverse Bay.

Traverse City has been throwing a cherry festival for a century and calls itself the “Cherry Capital of the World.” Every July, roughly half a million people visit for the National Cherry Festival: eating cherry pie, catching the air show over West Bay and cheering on the Cherry Queen.

Yet behind the festival parades, the farm families who planted those orchards have lived through one of the toughest stretches the industry has seen.

Northwest Michigan’s tart cherry harvest dropped dramatically, plunging from 101 million pounds in 2024 to just 34 million pounds in 2025, a 67% collapse.

In 2023, processors paid growers as little as 22 cents a pound, while Michigan State University estimated it cost growers 35 to 44 cents a pound to produce them between 2022 and 2024.

Most northern Michigan processing plants have closed, orchard acreage is increasingly pressured by residential subdivisions, and aging growers wonder whether the next generation can afford to carry on.

Here’s why this narrow strip of Michigan grows such a big share of the nation’s tart cherries (about 38% in 2024, with Michigan as a whole growing roughly 70% in a normal year), and what’s hitting the harvest.

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The Lake Michigan Microclimate

The Montmorency tart cherry (Prunus cerasus) is a fussy crop. It requires well-drained sandy-loam soils, high summer sun and topography that prevents frost damage. Northwest Lower Michigan became the heart of commercial production because of Lake Michigan’s microclimate:

• Delayed Spring Bloom: Prevailing westerly winds across the still-cold waters of Lake Michigan keep coastal air cool well into spring. This natural buffer holds cherry buds dormant longer than inland trees, protecting delicate flower blossoms from late-spring sub-freezing nights.
• Delayed Autumn Frost: In the fall, heat stored in the deep lake water moderates coastal temperatures, delaying the first hard freeze of fall.
• Air Drainage on Hillsides: The region’s rolling, glacier-shaped hills create natural slopes. Because cold air is heavier than warm air, freezing air slides downhill on quiet spring nights and pools safely in the valleys, keeping the hillside orchards above the frost line.

When that climate engine works, the region produces bountiful crops. But when seasonal weather patterns misfire, the results are severe.

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Three Pressures on the Orchard

Why can harvests be so difficult for northern Michigan growers? Farmers point to three compounding challenges:

1. Spring Freezes and Weather Whiplash

Warm spells in late February or March can wake cherry buds up early. Once green tissue emerges, frost tolerance drops. In 2002 and 2012, spring freezes wiped out roughly 90% of Michigan’s tart cherry crop. In 2025, the trouble was a cold, windy bloom that wrecked pollination, followed by disease, heavy rain and summer heat, on top of years of low processor prices.

2. The Invasive Spotted Wing Drosophila

In 2010, an invasive vinegar fly from Asia known as the Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) arrived in Michigan. Unlike native fruit flies that target overripe or fallen fruit, female SWD possess a serrated ovipositor that cuts directly into ripening fruit on the tree to lay eggs.

To meet the zero-tolerance standard for larvae set by commercial fruit processors, growers were forced to add extensive pest trapping and one to three additional protective sprays every season, adding to production costs.

3. Cheap Imports

Michigan growers have long pointed to competition from cheap foreign imports, especially dried tart cherries from Turkey. In 2019, the Commerce Department found Turkish dried cherries were being dumped and subsidized.

However, in early 2020 the International Trade Commission ruled that domestic growers had not been materially injured, so no protective tariffs took effect.

Furthermore, after the devastating 2012 freeze wiped out domestic supplies, many buyers started sourcing tart cherries from Turkey and Poland, and cheap imports have kept pressure on prices since. Imported fruit from South America and Europe has added further market pressure.

The Crop Numbers at a Glance

• Northwest Michigan Harvest: 101 million lbs (2024) to 34 million lbs (2025), a 67% decline.
• 2023 Base Processor Price: ~22¢ per pound (well below production cost).
• MSU Cost of Production Estimates: ~35¢/lb (2022) to ~44¢/lb (2024).
• Michigan Share of U.S. Crop: ~70% in normal years; 57% in frost-damaged 2025.

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The True Tart Mark

In February 2026, the USDA-overseen Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB), based in East Lansing, announced the “True Tart” mark, with certification set to open to food makers in summer 2026.

Much like the dairy industry’s “Real Seal,” the True Tart mark was created to establish minimum inclusion thresholds, verifying that a product contains a meaningful amount of U.S.-grown Montmorency tart cherries. As CIAB President Amy Cohn told Fruit Growers News, the label is meant to help shoppers “clearly distinguish from imported or non-Montmorency products.”

Leisa Eckerle Hankins, a fifth-generation Leelanau County grower and the owner of Benjamin Twiggs in Traverse City, was quoted by Bridge as applauding the branding push.

Montmorency tart cherries are naturally rich in anthocyanins and contain natural melatonin; researchers continue to study their potential role in reducing exercise-induced muscle soreness and supporting healthy sleep cycles.

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What a Few Seconds on a Tree Shaker Looks Like

Harvest across Old Mission and Leelanau in mid-July remains an impressive display of agricultural engineering.

Because tart cherries are delicate and bruise easily, hand-picking millions of pounds is impractical. In the late 1960s, MSU engineers, equipment makers and growers tinkering in their garages developed and refined the mechanical cherry shaker.

An operator maneuvers a shaker tractor up to a tree, clamps a hydraulic arm wrapped in thick rubber pads around the trunk and engages the motor. For just a few seconds, the machine vibrates the tree with rapid, rhythmic pulses.

A shower of ripe red cherries shakes free, landing on sloping canvas catching frames. The fruit rolls down conveyors directly into large tanks of cold well water (around 50 degrees) towed by an adjacent tractor. The cold water firms up the fruit quickly, and the cherries soak for hours at farm cooling pads before heading to regional processors.

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How to Support Local Cherry Growers

If you want to make sure your purchases support Michigan fruit growers:

1. Read the Origin Label: Check the fine print on the back of dried cherry bags or juice bottles. If the origin line names another country, it’s imported fruit rather than Michigan-grown.
2. Look for the True Tart Seal: The mark indicates verified, meaningful inclusion of domestic Montmorency tart cherries.
3. Shop at Grower-Owned Markets and Counters: When traveling through Northwest Michigan, buy fresh fruit, dried cherries and preserves directly from local growers:
   • King Orchards (Central Lake on M-88 and Kewadin on U.S. 31)
   • Benjamin Twiggs (downtown Traverse City)
   • Gallagher’s Farm Market (M-72 West, Traverse City)
   • Hallstedt Homestead Cherries (Northport, featuring u-pick sweet cherries)
   • Friske Farm Market (Ellsworth / Atwood on U.S. 31)

Supporting northern Michigan orchards helps preserve the scenic farmland, heritage barns and working families that define this corner of the state.

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