1. http://magicvalley.com/news/local/chobani-not-a-windfall-for-new-york-dairymen/article_28076a32-b2c1-
11e1-abba-0019bb2963f4.html
Chobani Not a Windfall for New York Dairymen
The Greek yogurt manufacturer consumes dozens of truckloads of milk daily, but farmers’ prices still
hinge on factors more global than local.
BY STEVE KADEL - skadel@magicvalley.com Jun 11, 2012
TWIN FALLS • If history is any indication, the Chobani Greek yogurt plant being built in Twin
Falls will help the local dairy economy but won’t be a nancial game-changer.
That’s the message from farmers and others in the upstate New York dairy industry, where
Chobani has operated an outlet since 2007 in the town of New Berlin.
NICOLE L. CVETNIC • Observer-Dispatch
Agro Farma’s manufacturing facility where Chobani yogurt is made, as seen April 12, 2011, in New Berlin, N.Y. (courtesy photo)

2. While the company has created jobs and buys large amounts of milk, farmers and economists
say dairy prices are swayed by other factors. Chobani representatives did not respond to
numerous questions regarding its business practices and e ect on the dairy market in time for
this report.
Jennifer Huson of East Syracuse, N.Y., spokeswoman for a cooperative of dairy farmers in the
Northeast, acknowledged that Chobani’s presence — and that of a couple other large yogurt
producers — has provided dairymen a “strong and stable” market for their milk.
“Dairy farms in the region are bene tting from the growth of dairy manufacturers like Chobani,”
she said. “Certainly this growth has contributed to the secure markets in our region and is
having a positive impact on dairy farmers and the community around them.”
Dairy farmer Dave Collins, president of the Onieda, N.Y., Farm Bureau, is a member of Dairylea,
one of three big cooperatives from which Chobani buys milk in New York. He lives just 20 miles
from the plant, so trucking costs are low.
Besides being a regular milk buyer from select cooperatives, Collins said, Chobani has helped
the local economy in another way. It has provided many jobs in New Berlin, which was in rapid
economic decline before the company came to town, he said.
Je Miller, an agricultural educator for the extension service in Oneida County, N.Y., agreed that
having more places to sell milk bene ts dairy owners. Yogurt producers help ll that role.
“Anytime there is an increase in milk products, it’s a good thing,” Miller said. “It’s just one more
thing the consumer is going to buy.”
However, he pointed out that having more local buyers doesn’t improve prices that farmers get
for milk.
“It doesn’t really allow a lot of opportunities for local industries to bid up the price for local
producers,” Miller said.
His colleague, Oneida extension farm business management specialist Jim Manning, said prices
that farmers get are driven by global factors, not ones close to home. More outlets for sales,
such as Chobani, have little e ect on dairymen’s bottom line, he said.

3. “What we are seeing here has very little impact on prices our local producers are getting. Things
further away geographically have a more signi cant impact on pricing.”
Manning said the last time New York farmers had good milk prices, a couple of years ago, it
corresponded with such things as newly a uent people in China demanding more protein in
their diet.
“Milk is a way that desire gets satis ed,” Manning said. “We are operating in a global market
with milk.”
Also, he said American dairies are competing with those in other countries, particularly
Australia and New Zealand.
The strength of the U.S. dollar also plays a part, he added. Manning said the dollar is relatively
strong now compared to currency in nancially struggling European countries.
“That’s not good for our milk producers,” he said. “U.S. products are expensive for Europeans to
buy.”
Still, Chobani’s addition to the Idaho dairy scene means a big sales opportunity for Magic Valley
milk producers. The company reportedly uses almost 3 million pounds of milk each day in its
New York plant, according to the Utica, N.Y., Observer-Dispatch. That was before Chobani
expanded its operations there in the past year.
Greek yogurt is a particularly milk-consumptive product, according to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service. That o ce says it takes about three times
more milk to produce the Greek variety than for regular yogurt.
Cornell University agricultural economics professor Andrew Novakovic wrote an article in
March outlining the New York dairy industry’s “tepid” growth over the years. He said Idaho milk
production was just a quarter of that in New York as of 1990. In 2008, though, the states began
producing an equal amount and Idaho surpassed New York starting in 2010.
That happened despite the emergence of Chobani as a major milk purchaser in the Empire
State.

4. While factors such as transportation costs determine pro t margins for farmers, Novakovic said
the dairy industry shouldn’t discount the bene t of increased desire for its product.
“For dairy farmers and others in the industry, growth in the demand for milk is assuredly better
than the opposite,” he said.
New York Dairyman: Many Producers Shut Out of Chobani Market
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