Cherry sales remain sluggish

From a practical standpoint, cherry (Prunus serotina) should be a top-selling domestic hardwood. It's widely available at competitive prices compared with other domestic species. But sales have slumped for more than a decade, according to lumber suppliers interviewed by Woodshop News. Some say cherry is gradually making a comeback, though market trends prevent a major rebound.

"Cherry sales are still slow. They're moving a little bit, but it's definitely not selling like crazy. We have begun to see a small uptick in inquiries for sure, but it's only a very slow increase," says Myron Yoder of Irion Lumber in Wellsboro, Pa.

"And it tends to be for the thicker material as opposed to 4/4. I sell very little 4/4, but I sell 8/4, I sell 10/4, and I sell some of the bigger stuff. But the 4/4 doesn't seem to be selling that much."

Yoder says cherry sales have been slow for at least 10 years, with a particularly strong lull in the last five. The lack of demand has helped keep prices low.

"It's bumped along for quite a while, a little here, a little there, but nowhere near what it used to be," he says. "Cherry's half the price or even less than half the price of walnut, so you're talking a significant amount, particularly on larger jobs. You could get your material at a third of the cost. It's just a color and trend issue that seems to be the reason. Walnut's the one that keeps the market moving."

Matched sets of figured cherry are moving well, however. Yoder says even when cherry generally isn't selling, highly figured material remains in demand.

"But it tends to be the most extremely figured stuff, as opposed to just generally figured," he says. "I rarely sell batches of grade figured cherry. It's normally highly figured, matched from the same tree. People think it's beautiful and want to buy the whole set. That high quality, high figured material still grabs people's attention and they buy it."

The good news: Cherry remains plentiful. Because of low prices and declining demand, many suppliers aren't carrying much inventory. Since supply exceeds demand, the quality of available material is top grade.

"We're now able to get incredible logs we couldn't touch 10 years ago. They're the best quality we've ever had because we're able to buy big logs," Yoder says. "When cherry was really hot over 10 years ago, we couldn't get those logs because they were going overseas, but now the brokers are real happy to see us."

Levi Neimond of Alderfer Lumber in Mount Pleasant Mills, Pa., sells cherry for cabinetry and stair parts. He agrees that cherry sales are nowhere near their former levels.

"It seems like all of the red-toned woods have kind of dropped off. Red oak and cherry are both kind of slow," Neimond says. "There are certain markets for red oak but it's kind of hard to make them not red, especially when people are tending towards more natural finishes instead of stains."

Cherry peaked in popularity during the 1990s, he notes. "We still get people who want super high-quality specialty or super thick cherry, which we do up to 16/4. Overall, I just think the market trends have shifted to more brown woods vs. red woods."

He attributes some of the shift to marketing buzzwords that influence consumer choices regardless of wood quality.

Bob Reynolds of Reynolds Sawmill in Swan, Iowa, sells cherry for furniture including dressers, chairs and drawer fronts.

"I've got a customer that does a lot with cherry and he bought about 100 board feet from me recently. I would say it's in an upward trend," Reynolds says. "And if you get a lot that's got figure in it and marking that just make it beautiful, it's a big seller. I sell mine at $4.50 per board foot and nobody complains about the price."

Retail cherry prices range from $4.17 to $4.50/bf foot for standard grades and can increase significantly depending on log size.

Originally published in the January 2026 issue of Woodshop News.