Michigan lawmaker wants to make the cherry our state fruit

(WWJ) — Michigan already has many well-known state symbols, like the state bird (robin), state stone (Petoskey stone) and state flower (apple blossom).

Now one Michigan lawmaker is trying to give Michigan a state fruit: the cherry.

Sen. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs) has introduced legislation to formally name the cherry as Michigan’s state fruit. Much like Georgia is known for its peaches, Florida for its oranges and Idaho for its potatoes, he wants us to be known for our cherries.

Even more well-known, that is. Michigan is the leading grower of tart cherries in the world. In 2024 nearly 70% of all tart cherries grown in the U.S. came from Michigan, while Damoose says the state also produces “a huge portion” of sweet cherries.

“It’s an enormous industry,” Damoose said, noting Traverse City is known as “the Cherry Capital of the World.”

The cherry brings so much economic activity to Michigan that more than 500,000 people attended the 98th National Cherry Festival in Traverse City earlier this summer.

But speaking with WWJ Newsradio 950's Greg Bowman about the cherry industry, Damoose said, “sadly it’s really been facing huge challenges.”

On top of climate issues that contributed to a struggling sweet cherry crop this year, Damoose said illegal dumping and unfair trading practices from countries like Turkey are leading to many farmers having to cut their trees down.

“They are basically dumping their products at a low cost and at rates that our farmers could never compete with because they’re not following labor laws and they don’t have all the restrictions and good protections for the environment and for the safety of the product that we have here in the United States,” Damoose said.

So his bill, Damoose said, is “really an attempt to draw attention to that, to get people to listen and help.”

“It has been something that has just driven our business into the ground. I talk to farmer after farmer who’s telling me now they’re losing money on every bushel of cherries they produce; they can’t afford to keep doing this because they can’t keep up with these imports,” he said.

While Damoose doesn’t expect the legislation to be addressed before this November’s election, he thinks it will be looked at as “a no-brainer.”

“Once the election’s over, I think we can probably get it brought up, because this should be something everyone’s really excited about doing,” Damoose said.

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