Michigan’s tart-cherry belt is confronting one of its toughest seasons in years after a late-April frost wiped out large swathes of budding fruit. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the state’s harvest will shrink 41% from 2024, with northwest Michigan—home to the bulk of production—facing a 70% plunge. Farmers say the weather blow is landing just as federal support systems weaken. Trump-administration spending cuts have delayed USDA grants for equipment and disease research, reorganised U.S. Postal Service routes that once carried fresh fruit, and slowed the processing of H-2A visas that bring in seasonal pickers. King Orchards in Central Lake, for example, received its Guatemalan crew weeks late and paid extra to ship perishable fruit by private carrier. The setbacks threaten a $227 million national tart-cherry industry already pressed by trade conflicts. U.S. fresh-fruit exports fell 17% in volume and 15% in value in the first half of 2025 as tariffs damped demand from China and Canada. While Washington State’s sweet-cherry crop is up 29% thanks to favourable weather, growers there also report weak prices and few buyers, underscoring how erratic weather and policy shifts are reshaping the broader tree-fruit sector.