Perhaps the 2024 growing season wasn't so dire after all. 

While local cherry industry experts have gone on record about the pronounced challenges they faced this year, tart cherry production, at least, was up.

According to a September update from the Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB) – the administrative arm of the Federal Marketing Order for tart cherries in the United States – “the harvest for crop year 2024/2025 was 261.7 million pounds.” That number both beats the crop size that CIAB estimated for the year at a June board meeting (247.2 million pounds) and marks the largest tart cherry crop produced by U.S. growers since 2018-19.

Despite rumors that recent industry challenges might bring about the end of Traverse City’s status as the “Cherry Capital of the World,” northwest Michigan is still leading the charge for tart cherry production nationally. The region accounted for 100.73 million pounds of tart cherry production this year, or 38 percent of the U.S. crop. Northwest Michigan also beat its estimated production for the year, which was 90 million pounds.

As a whole, Michigan still accounts for more than half of U.S. tart cherry production, with the west-central Michigan and southwest Michigan divisions combining for 77.68 million pounds and 29 percent of the national crop. In a distant second place, on the states list, was Utah, which produced just 17 percent of the tart cherry crop.