America’s largest retail store has announced its plans to build a $350 million milk processing plant in Valdosta, Ga. With more than 4,600 stores located throughout the U.S., the Arkansas-based company says the new plant will provide milk to more than 750 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Georgia along with neighboring states.

Bruce Heckman, Walmart’s vice president of manufacturing, said in a statement that the company wants to do more to ensure its milk supply, saying the company wants to provide “high-quality milk for our customers that we can offer at the everyday low prices they rely on.”

In the past, Walmart has purchased its great-value branded milk from other dairy cooperatives. However, over the last decade, the retail giant has built a series of milk processing plants to control production of one of the most price-sensitive grocery commodities. Walmart opened its first fluid milk processing facility in 2018 in Fort Wayne, Ind.

According to the Associated Press, the retail giant is following the lead of other large grocers such as Kroger, which has long run its own dairy processing facilities. But some critics have warned Walmart buys milk from only a handful of large farms, putting smaller farms under further pressure. 

Georgia Milk Producers, a dairy farmer trade group, reports Georgia currently has 89 dairy farms, with 92,000 dairy cows, more than 1,000 cows per farm. Georgia produced 235 million gallons of milk in 2022, the largest of any southern state. Currently, the peach state only has two commercial milk processing plants located in Atlanta and Lawrenceville.

The new fluid milk processing facility is scheduled to begin operations in Valdosta in late 2025 and could employ up to 400 people. In a statement made by the retailer, the facility will create milk products using ingredients sourced from local farmers throughout the Southeast region under Walmart’s Great Value and Members Mark brands.  

Source : Dairy Herd Oct 11th 2023