Chobani, America’s top yoghurt brand, has broken ground for a $1.2bn dairy plant in Mohawk Valley, Rome city, New York, the company has announced.

Once home to Griffiss Air Force Base, the 150-acre stretch of open land will be transformed into a 1.4mn square-foot (131,000 square-metre) dairy production facility.

“New York is where Chobani's journey began. It was the perfect spot to start Chobani 20 years ago,” Hamdi Ulukaya, the company’s self-made billionaire founder, said during the April 22 ground-breaking ceremony.

Ulukaya was born in 1972 in the town of Ilic in Erzincan province, eastern Turkey. He moved to the US in 1994.

Largest in history

“Chobani has been a major employer in Mohawk Valley for decades, and this massive new $1.2bn investment will bring more than 1,000 good-paying jobs to Oneida County — as the largest natural food manufacturing investment in American history,” New York governor Kathleen Hochul said.

The plant will boast an annual production capacity of one billion pounds (454mn kilograms). It will process 12mn pounds (5.4mn kilograms) of milk per day, which will be supplied by local farmers.

Launched in 2005

Chobani, launched in 2005, is one of the largest buyers of raw milk in New York. It purchases over a billion pounds of raw milk from New York State dairy farms each year.

When the new plant reaches full capacity, Chobani will purchase an estimated 6bn pounds per year.

Chobani’s first plant was built in South Edmeston village, New York. The second plant was built in Twin Falls, Idaho. The company also has plants in Michigan and Australia.

In March, Chobani announced a $500mn expansion at its Idaho plant.

In 2024, Ulukaya bought a $45mn mansion on the Bosporus strait in Istanbul.