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Abstract
Fruit producers in the Eastern United States face a wide range of weather-related risks during the
growing season, and many of these events have the capacity to largely impact yields and
profitability. This research examines the economic implications associated with responding to
these risks for sweet cherry production in three different systems: using high tunnels to protect
the crop, purchasing revenue insurance products, and employing weather insurance schemes.
The analysis considers a distribution of revenue flows and costs using detailed price, yield, and
weather data between 1984 and 2013. Our results show that the high tunnel system generates the
largest net return if significant price premiums exist for earlier and larger fruit. Under most
conditions, the results also indicate that net returns for the system that uses revenue-based crop
insurance exceed those for the system that uses weather insurance products.