Security
Milk Producers Association, based in Ontario, is scouting a location for
a milk plant in Tulare County, says general manager Hank Perkins.
“Talks are very preliminary,” says Perkins, “but we need to site a plant up there” because of the volume of milk that comes from the Valley. Perkins says the 34-member co-op has approved the search and expects to be in production here by 2010, a very aggressive time schedule.
The cooperative produces about 4 million pounds of milk daily, about 1.4 billion pounds annually. The co-op has been in place since 1964 and does some $200 million in annual sales.
Security is basically a fluid milk supplier to the L.A. area with some large customers that include the Ralphs (Kroger) chain and Trader Joe's. In Tulare County, Security has a milk contract to supply product to Mozzarella Fresca cheese company in Tipton.
Sources say the company has visited site locations up and down Highway 99, including near Pixley and in Tulare.
Perkins says the cooperative receives about half its production from large member dairy farms in the greater Tulare area, making it a logical choice for a new plant. “With the cost of freight it makes more sense to have our production facility nearby,” Perkins says.
The plant would be built in phases with the first phase making cream and condensed milk and phase two being a butter/ powder facility used to balance milk production that ebbs and flows.
Per capita consumption of fluid milk continues to go down in the U.S. and in southern California, says Perkins, making it necessary to process more milk as other than fluid milk.
Tulare County is the largest dairy producing site in the nation and boasts several large dairy co-ops including Land O'Lakes in Tulare and California Dairies, Inc. in Visalia and Tipton.
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