Cayuga Milk Ingredients (CMI) has announced a $150 million expansion plan for its dairy processing facility in Auburn, New York.

Founded in 2014, CMI is a farmer-owned company that processes milk from 30 family-owned dairy farms within the Finger Lakes region.

The investment will include an aseptic processor, bottling and packaging line, which will allow CMI to produce finished products for the extended-shelf life beverage market. 

Additional improvements will focus on areas including wastewater treatment, development of stormwater retention, trucking and parking enrichments, and utility upgrades.

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 loadouts to customers”.

All in all, the expansion project is expected to create 70 full-time jobs. Construction work will begin in spring 2023.

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.”