Fruit Industry Snapshot

Apples

• The 2025 national apple harvest came in at 11.47 million pounds, about 6% over the 2024 harvest of 10.85 million pounds.
• New York’s harvest came in at 1.45 million pounds, an increase over 2024’s harvest of 1.29 million pounds. Washington harvested 8.00 million pounds, a significant increase over 2024’s harvest of 7.48 million pounds. Michigan, the third largest producer, harvested 1.10 million pounds, a slight decrease from 2024’s 1.15 million pounds.
• Despite concerns over labor availability, it did not seem to reduce fruit harvest, at least for apples. Washington’s harvest, while large, did reportedly have some quality issues due to unusually hot weather late in the season.
• Pricing and demand in the Northeast 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 marketing year. 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. 

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. In addition, the Massachusetts harvest came in much smaller than last year, declining from 2.25 million barrels to 1.75 million barrels in 2025 due to some winter kill last winter, and drought over the summer/fall. Wisconsin’s crop also came in smaller than 2024’s, declining from 5.49 to 5.30 million barrels. Despite a smaller U.S. crop, higher production in British Columbia and Canada’s Eastern Provinces more than made up the deficit, and the crop is once again in a surplus situation.