Small Sweet & Tart Cherry Crops Expected This Year

4th of July is a big holiday for the cherry industry.  So, what do the numbers look like with Independence Day fast approaching?  Lance Honig with NASS took a look at the crop nationwide.

“For both the sweet and the tart crops this year, it was not a good season,” Honig said.

He said when it comes to sweet cherries, Mother Nature is to blame.

“Those are highly concentrated up in Washington," he said.  "They had all kinds of weather problems up there. And so as a result, we ended up with an overall sweet cherry production, actually looking at the smallest crop since 2022, the second smallest since 2008.”

And Honig said while growing weather for sweet cherries wasn’t great, it was worse for tart cherry producers.

“Highly concentrated as well, but in Michigan," Honig said.  "But unfortunately, folks in Michigan had freeze issues this year as well. So now we're looking at the smallest tart cherry crop since 2012.”

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