Fruit Industry Snapshot

Apples

• With apple harvest ongoing, forecasts are for a 6% larger national crop over the 2024 harvest (290 million bushels). New York’s harvest is forecast at 34.5 million bushels, second to Washington’s harvest of 190.5 million bushels. Michigan ranks third at 26.2 million bushels. Despite concerns over labor availability, it does not seem to be reducing fruit harvest, at least for apples. Washington’s harvest, while large, does have some quality issues due to unusually hot weather late in the season.
• The NY apple harvest is coming along well. They will probably realize about an 80% crop for the area, as an average with some orchards harvesting 100%. Some varieties will be light based on when pollination took place as heavy rains this spring hurt some of those flowers at their critical stage.
• Pricing and demand is some of the best seen in several years. The 2024 crop was generally fully marketed with little to no carryover and now all buyers are seeking new fruit. Some processing buyers have adjusted prices up several times this season. Processing and juice buyers are even looking for drops at this point, which hasn’t happened in several years.
• Overall a pretty decent outlook for the 2025 Northeast crop. The cherry crop was also good this year, unlike the past few, so those growing cherries saw an early boost into their cash flow streams this year.
• Tariffs and trade barriers could be negative for fresh market growers, positive for processing growers (the U.S. is a net exporter of fresh apples but imports a lot of apple juice concentrate). Total apple exports declined by 5% in 2025 y-o-y.
• New Jersey peaches had a decent year and managed to avoid late spring frosts. 

 Wine/Craft Beverage

• Wine/Craft Beverage: The wine industry is struggling globally due to weak markets, and vineyards are being uprooted in major wine producing regions around the world. Wine sales have declined in recent years, and grape harvest has fallen as well, due to vineyard removals, less intensive management, and unharvested crops due to poor markets. 
• Eastern wineries in general, while experiencing a slowdown in business, are generally outperforming their peers in other parts of the country. Higher-quality winemakers and those providing superior customer experiences have done better than average. 

 Cranberries

• Pricing has softened for the industry. The Massachusetts harvest is predicted to be smaller than last year by 10-15%, due to some winter kill last winter, and drought over the summer/fall. Competing regions (Wisconsin and Eastern Canada) are predicted to have a very good crop which means long supplies weighing on the market.

¹ USApple