Cherry Central Cooperative, Inc.

Cherry Central Cooperative, Inc., doing business as Cherry Central, is a small agricultural cooperative based in Ludington, Michigan that supplies processed shelf-stable fruit commodities—canned applesauce, bottled juices, frozen apple slices, and dried cherries—to the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a prime contractor exclusively under small business set-asides. Cherry Central operates 100% as a prime contractor with no subcontract footprint and competes predominantly in the Fruit and Vegetable Canning category (NAICS 311421) under partial and total small business set-asides across recurring federal commodity procurement programs.

The cooperative's customer base is heavily concentrated within USDA. The top five funding agencies account for 95% of recent awards, dominated by USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service Washington Office (127 awards, $310.2 million combined potential value), the Food and Nutrition Service (148 awards, $261.2 million combined potential value), the Agricultural Marketing Service's Specialty Crops Program (119 awards, $190.8 million combined potential value), and the Agricultural Marketing Service base (178 awards, $2.9 million combined potential value). Defense Logistics Agency rounds out the active set with nine awards. The two ranking metrics diverge meaningfully—USDA AMS Washington Office dominates dollars while Food and Nutrition Service leads award count—but both tier toward the same agency and mission: domestic food assistance programs including the National School Lunch Program.

Recent representative contract work illustrates Cherry Central's operating posture. A $3.75 million partial small business set-aside definitive contract awarded August 27, 2026 by the Food and Nutrition Service covers bottled apple juice, cherry apple juice, grape Concord juice, and cranberry apple juice in 8/64 fl oz plastic bottles with ultimate completion December 31, 2026 and place of performance Ludington, Michigan. A $6.32 million partial small business set-aside definitive contract awarded August 17, 2026 by AMS Washington Office for canned applesauce cups, unsweetened cans, and cup sleeves carries the same completion date and place of performance. A $4.2 million partial small business set-aside definitive contract awarded May 12, 2026 by AMS Washington Office supplies applesauce cups and cans; similar work includes a $7.45 million applesauce commodity contract (May 12, 2026) and a $4.223 million bottled juice contract (May 14, 2026), both under partial small business set-asides to Food and Nutrition Service.

Cherry Central holds multiple active Indefinite Delivery Contracts with USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service. Three IDCs visible in the source carry combined ceiling values exceeding $11.2 million, each with completion dates extending through late 2024 or early 2025. The largest, awarded May 17, 2024, is valued at $4.7 million for canned, frozen, and shelf-stable fruit products with performance through October 2024. A $3.7 million IDC awarded July 16, 2024 targets Grape Concord Juice in 8/64 fl oz bottles through January 31, 2025. A $2.75 million IDC awarded October 1, 2024 for the same product line also extends to January 31, 2025. These IDCs function as parent vehicles for recurring task orders under USDA's Commodity Procurement Program. Cherry Central also holds a $5.5 million partial small business set-aside definitive contract with Food and Nutrition Service awarded February 1, 2022 for bottled juices with ultimate completion extending to September 12, 2025.

Production and place of performance span three facilities: Ludington, Michigan (primary administrative and applesauce/juice production); Payson, Utah (dried cherries); and Othello, Washington (applesauce cups and specialized items). All products must be grown, processed, and prepared exclusively in the United States to meet Agricultural Acquisition Regulation requirements. The cooperative was also awarded a $250,000 USDA Rural Business Cooperative Services Value-Added Agricultural Product Market Development Grant (September 2020) to support development and introduction of new value-added agricultural products.

Activity has remained steady year over year—22 awards in 2022, rising to 28 in 2023, remaining at 25 in 2024, then declining to 17 in 2025 and 10 year-to-date in 2026. Three awards carrying $10.7 million in combined potential value reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore face recompete risk. Combined potential value across all 614 awards totals $782.5 million against obligated dollars of $894.9 million (114% of combined potential), indicating consistent full-and-over performance execution typical of commodity delivery contracts where market price adjustments or volume overages are common. Cherry Central operates exclusively as a prime contractor with no identifiable subcontract relationships and no holdings on government-wide acquisition contracts or other multi-agency vehicles; its federal business is routed entirely through USDA commodity procurement channels.