Feeding the demand, tart cherry company imports after devastating crop yield

The U.S. tart cherry crop is drastically reduced, in a year when demand for tart cherries has never been higher. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cherry Crop Report, released late last month, United States tart cherry production is forecast at 73.1 million pounds, down 68 percent from the 2011 production.

Unfortunately, this downturn in production comes on the heels of the strongest year ever for tart cherries, which have enjoyed a great deal of attention on television programs such as Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray and The Doctors. Studies showing the benefits of tart cherries for arthritis patients and others have lead to increased media attention, according to Jeff Manning of the Cherry Marketing Institute.

“Consumers and the media are exceptionally responsive to the tart cherry story because it is science-based and isn’t trying to ‘sell’ them. This is one of the real strengths of category marketing...as the springboard for brand marketing,” Manning said.

In response to the tart cherry crop devastation this year, Cheribundi, the leading maker of tart cherry juice, must scramble to find available commercial tart cherries. The vast majority of U.S. tart cherries — generally Montmorency cherries, commonly known as pie cherries — are grown in Michigan, a state hit hard by early warm weather and then hard frosts this spring.

Cheribundi is a tart cherry juice developed at Cornell University and produced in Geneva, New York, with its CEO, Brian Ross, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. The company prides itself on the fact that it is made from U.S. grown cherries from Michigan and New York, according to Ross.

“We’re all about being part of the movement to create awareness of where our food comes from. It’s more sustainable to buy raw materials that don’t have to be imported from overseas,” Ross said. “We are in the unfortunate situation this year, where we are forced to either cut way back on production and distribution —which could kill our brand — or import cherries from countries like Poland or Turkey.”

“In Michigan, record high temperatures in early spring led to premature development of trees,” the USDA said, in its June 28, 2012, Cherry Crop Report. “This was followed by below normal temperatures and continual frost events throughout the state. Additionally, pollination conditions were poor.

“The majority of (Michigan) growers lost all of their harvestable crop this year.”
In fact, the tart cherry crop in Michigan is forecast at 5.5 million pounds, down 97 percent from 2011. No other state comes close to Michigan’s production, though other states, including New York, also had significant crop loss this year.

The last time Michigan farmers experienced a similar crop disaster was in 2002 when production was 15 million pounds, while total U.S. production that year was 62.5 million lbs, according to U.S.D.A. data.
“They said in 2002 that it was a ‘once every 100 years’ type of situation,” Ross said. “Yet here we are 11 years later with even worse devastation.”