In 1998, for example, the state's apple crop totaled 970 million pounds, while the combined volume of tart cherries, blueberries, peaches, strawberries, sweet cherries, grapes, pears and plums produced in Michigan was 593.3 million pounds. In 1995 Michigan's record apple production was 1.220 billion pounds, and the volume from those other crops was just over half that at 667 million pounds. Michigan's apple total exceeds the size of the national tart cherry crop, which was about 349 million pounds in 1998.
Apples are also Michigan's largest crop on an acreage basis.
A 1997 census of fruit production in Michigan counted more apple trees than all other species of fruit trees combined. There were 8.85 million apple trees in Michigan's commercial orchards. Tart cherry trees totaled 3.73 million, peaches 860,000, sweet cherries 843,000, plums 147,000 and pears 102,000. Apples are the most heavily planted tree fruit in recent years. Michigan growers in 1996 and 1997 planted more than 1 million new apple trees.