Darigold recently broke ground on a new production facility located in Pasco, Wash. The co-op currently operates 11 milk production plants throughout the Northwest, with the 12th plant slated to open in early 2024.
“The Pasco project represents our third major capital investment in as many years, the largest investment in our co-op’s 104-year-history, and a significant step in an ongoing strategy to expand and modernize Darigold,” said Joe Coote, the co-op’s chief executive officer, in a press release. “We are a beloved heritage brand with deep roots in Washington and around the Pacific Northwest, but there’s still considerable opportunity for us to leverage industry growth – here at home and around the world – to become a top-tier global dairy producer. This facility will play an important role in helping us achieve that vision.”
The $600 million facility will process approximately 8 million pounds of milk per day when fully operational from more than 100 dairy farms in surrounding communities. The Pasco facility will be outfitted with two specialized milk dryers and two packaging lines for powdered milk products, two butter churns, two bulk butter packaging lines and five consumer butter packaging lines.
“The growth of the dairy sector both domestically and internationally presents an opportunity for our dairy farmers,” said Allan Huttema, chairman of Darigold’s board of directors and operator of Almar Dairy in Parma, Idaho. “Dairy farmers in the Pacific Northwest have a unique opportunity to benefit from global demand for dairy, which is rising considerably faster than it is domestically. This region is ideally suited to producing high-quality, nutritious dairy and our proximity to global shipping infrastructure makes it more efficient to access international markets.”
When fully operational, the facility will have the capacity to produce some 175 million pounds of butter per year, and nearly 280 million pounds of powdered milk products annually, including products that meet the highest industry specifications for use in the most sensitive applications such as infant formula. The facility’s proximity to rail lines and global shipping ports will help the co-op realize transportation efficiencies for products going to both domestic and global customers.
“The dairy industry continues to be a key driver of the region’s agricultural sector,” said Coote. “By adding capacity through this facility, we stand to share the bounty of Northwest dairy with more consumers at home and around the globe, and build more value for the family farmers who own our co-op. That’s something that should be easy for all of us in the PNW to stand behind.”
