US – Cayuga Milk Ingredients, a farmer-owned dairy processing company, has laid out a US$150 million expansion plan for its dairy processing facility in Auburn, New York.
The investment for the 50,000-square-foot expansion project beginning in 2023, will include a 130,000-square-foot aseptic processing and bottling facility, and packaging line, which will allow CMI to produce finished products for the extended-shelf life beverage market.
The new bottling line will have the capacity to produce up to 150,000 gallons of milk-based beverages each day.
CMI is also investing in two raw milk receiving bays, enabling “80 tractor-trailers to pass through the doors per day between deliveries and load-outs to customers”.
Other additional enhancements to existing facilities to accommodate increased production focus on areas, including wastewater treatment, development of stormwater retention, trucking and parking enrichments, and utility upgrades.
Out of the total investment approximated at US$149.1million, as per the project documents, an estimate of US$132.2 million would be channeled to the bottling plant and US$16.9 million to the receiving bays and wastewater infrastructure.
According to project documents filed with the Cayuga County IDA, the project will add an estimated 74 jobs at the industrial park.
The company recently reached an agreement to buy several parcels from the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency.
Finalization of the land purchase agreements will include financial assistance packages that would include property and sales tax exemptions. The IDA and CMI are still negotiating the terms of those deals.
CMI currently employs 91 people and exports its products to more than 75 countries. Its main product line has been milk and protein powders, with some refrigerated liquid products.
CMI chairman, Neil Rejman, said: “Cayuga is strong and profitable, with a long history of growth and transition. We’re looking forward to the future with ambitious projects, like aseptic, that let us build on the dependable people and progress we have developed over the last eight years.”
The US$1.1 million grant through Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan Economic Adjustment Assistance Program is the major source for funding a new wastewater pumping station at the industrial park.
IDA said the new wastewater pumping station will be critical in supporting CMI’s expansion project in addition to supporting the park’s other tenant, Denkavit, an animal feed producer.
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