Governor Andrew Cuomo visited Batavia, Genesee County to celebrate the construction of a new yogurt plant and the multinational partnership that developed it.
Cuomo joined corporate leaders of PepsiCo and German company Theo Muller Group to talk about the dairy products plant being built at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park.
Cuomo said yogurt is a prime commercial product for the state - with 49 yogurt plants throughout New York, "And I'm gonna eat more than my share of yogurt. I promise you - it's healthy, it's good, it's a great product. But from a parochial point of view - we also have our own business interest in seeing yogurt do well because this state has made a significant investment of time energy and resources in yogurt - so we believe in the yogurt story."
The two companies are building a $206 million plant that is expected to open next year.
The governor said New York has an entrepreneurial government that will find ways to actively help the industry and farmers, "How can we make the relationship between the yogurt producers and the dairy industry work well? We're making so much yogurt that we have to make sure that we have the milk supply to keep up with the yogurt production because when increasing yogurt production that quickly you have to increase dairy supply so the state has a very active role."
The plant will produce both traditional and Greek-style yogurt and will initially employ 180 people.