General Mills in dairy deal with Organic Valley

General Mills partnership with the big Wisconsin dairy co-op will up organic milk production for yogurt.

June 8, 2016 at 5:08PM

General Mills Wednesday announced a new partnership with Organic Valley that will help 20 dairy farms add 3,000 acres of organic production over the next three years.

With the deal, southwest Wisconsin-based Organic Valley will increase production for General Mills, specifically for yogurt.

Organic Valley, the nation's largest organic cooperative, is already an ingredient supplier for mac and cheese made by Annie's, which Golden Valley-based General Mills bought in 2014 for $820 million.

General Mills rolled out an Annie's organic yogurt earlier this year. The company also plans to switch to organic milk in its Liberte yogurt in this country. Organic Liberte is slated to roll out nationwide this summer.

General Mills has said it plans to grow its natural and organic food sales from about $675 million now to $1 billion by 2019. To do that, Mills plans to source organic ingredients from 250,000 acres of organic farmland by 2019, up from 120,000 in 2015.

The company says it's the nation's third largest maker of natural and organic foods.

about the writer

about the writer

Mike Hughlett

Reporter

Mike Hughlett covers energy and other topics for the Minnesota Star Tribune, where he has worked since 2010. Before that he was a reporter at newspapers in Chicago, St. Paul, New Orleans and Duluth.

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