Chobani: A Southern Tier Success Story

No single story better illustrates the transformative power of the Central New York dairy industry than the rise of Chobani. Founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya in the small Chenango County village of South Edmeston, Chobani repurposed a shuttered Kraft Foods plant in New Berlin and began making Greek yogurt. It would go on to become one of the most remarkable agricultural success stories in modern American history.

The Chobani plant in New Berlin became an engine of the regional dairy economy, drawing on the milk of farms throughout the Southern Tier and Central New York. At its peak of early expansion, the facility processed over 1.26 billion pounds of milk in a single year, sourcing more than 90 percent of that milk from New York farms. It takes approximately four gallons of milk to produce one gallon of Greek yogurt, meaning that Chobani's growth created a voracious and sustained demand for the milk that Southern Tier farmers produce every day.

Chobani's success helped establish New York as the number one yogurt manufacturing state in the country, a distinction that has rippled across the entire regional economy. Now, with a $1.2 billion facility slated to open in Rome, Oneida County — just to the north of the Southern Tier — Chobani's footprint in Central New York continues to expand, expected to produce over one billion pounds of dairy products per year.

The broader dairy manufacturing renaissance in upstate New York has followed a similar pattern, with major investments from Fairlife, Great Lakes Cheese, and BelGioioso all reinforcing the region's status as a national dairy processing hub.

Sources:

• cals.cornell.edu

• www.nydairy.co

• agriculture.ny.gov