Sour weather bites Michigan’s sweet cherry growers
Rain early in the growing season created conditions for insects and disease to spread. The federal government is stepping in to help.
Bad weather battered Michigan’s cherry industry in 2024. The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development estimates sweet cherry growers lost about 75 percent of their crops due to extreme conditions.
MDARD Director Tim Boring says a mild winter and a rainy start to the growing season caused disease and insects to spread.
“This year’s events are really a series of increasingly challenging extreme weather events due in a lot of ways to climate patterns in Michigan,” Boring said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue a disaster declaration in northwest Michigan’s cherry growing counties. The USDA approved her request and will make emergency low-interest loans available to eligible farmers.
The declaration includes Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Crawford, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelenau, Manistee, Missaukee, Otsego and Wexford counties.
Climate change is not the only challenge
Boring says before the disaster, Michigan’s cherry industry was already struggling with higher labor costs.
“Labor availability and the wage rate are certainly a challenge, not only in cherries but especially crops more broadly in Michigan,” Boring said.
He added the state faces competition from cheaper imported cherries from Turkey.
“We’re seeing a lot of products that are coming in at low levels, low price points, a lower cost of production than what cherry producers her in Michigan are able to hit,” Boring said.
Related: Michigan should have plenty of apples this fall
Despite the damage to sweet cherries, Michigan’s tart cherry crop flourished in 2024. The Cherry Industry Administrative Board, which tracks tart cherry production nationwide, says the northern Lower Peninsula harvested more than 100 million pounds of fruit this year. That’s almost 50 percent more than they did in 2023.
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