The largest dairy processing plant in the Northwest that was five years in the making is up and running in Pasco.

The new plant, built and operated by Seattle-based Darigold Inc., recently began receiving and processing milk. Darigold said the Pasco project is a $1 billion investment.

Roughly 75 people are currently employed at the facility with more joining every day, Darigold spokesman Chris Arnold told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

Once fully operational, the facility is expected to directly employ 200 people and support an additional 1,000 jobs in the community in warehousing, transportation and agriculture. 

At capacity, the plant would see more than 100 trucks a day (each truck can hold a little over 70,000 gallons) to deliver 8 million pounds a day – equivalent to more than 930,000 gallons – to produce butter and powdered milk products for domestic and global markets. 

Darigold’s farmer-owners approved the Pasco project in 2021 to expand and modernize the company’s production capability, create growth opportunties for member farms, and strengthen the co-op’s ability to serve global markets.

| Courtesy Darigold

Demand for dairy

Dairy is a hot commodity in Washington state with milk production valued at $1.5 billion.  

Benton and Franklin counties produce millions of dollars’ worth of milk.

Statewide, dairy farms produced about 726 million gallons of milk in 2024.

Dairy is the state’s No. 5 most exported agriculture product, valued at $564 million in 2024, a 1% increase over the previous year, according to the state Department of Agriculture. The state’s top export markets are Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Darigold said the Pasco plant will produce butter and powered milk products for customers across the U.S. and about 30 countries worldwide.

“Dairy demand continues to grow, both here at home and abroad,” said Allan Huttema, president and CEO of Darigold and a third-generation dairy farmer in Parma, Idaho, in a statement. “Our new Pasco facility solidifies the Northwest as a global dairy leader and reflects our farmer-owners’ long-term commitment to good stewardship, high-quality production, and maintaining dairy farming as a way of life.” 

The Pasco facility at 8201 N. Railroad Ave., designed by architectural firm E.A. Bonelli & Associates and built by Miron Construction, is the flagship facility at the Port of Pasco’s Reimann Industrial Center just north of Pasco on the eastern side of Highway 395. 

The Pasco project at 8201 N. Railroad Ave. represents more than $1 billion in investment in Washington’s dairy sector, including both construction and on-farm expansion.

| Courtesy Darigold

A team effort including the city of Pasco and port officials as well as those with the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC) worked to bring Darigold to the community.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see that early groundwork results in the opening of the largest dairy processing facility in the Northwest,” said Karl Dye, TRIDEC’s president and CEO, in a statement to the Journal.

Construction on the massive 229,000-square-foot plant on 137 acres began in 2022, and work isn’t complete yet as the plant plans to add additional production equipment in the coming months. Its butter churn and one of two milk dryers will come online in the coming weeks, with a second milk dryer coming online before the end of the year.

The facility was built with sustainability in mind, including low-emission burner technology in its milk dryers, access to Pasco’s recently expanded Process Water Reuse Facility for responsible wastewater treatment and reuse, and a strategic location intended to maximize efficiencies and logistics.

The first batch of powdered milk and butter should be rolling off production lines in July.

The new Pasco Darigold plant will process up to 8 million pounds of milk per day from more than 100 regional farms, producing butter and powdered milk products for customers across the U.S. and in some 30 countries worldwide.

| Courtesy Darigold

Dye said TRIDEC began working to bring Darigold to the community five years ago as they looked for a site for a processing facility. Partnering with the port and city officials in Pasco helped make building in the area an attractive option. That included making sure the infrastructure the plant would need, from power and water to access to rail, would be available.

“Darigold’s Pasco facility represents an impressive level of private investment in Pasco,” said port Commissioner Jean Ryckman in a statement. “The project is also a prime example of what’s possible when local, state and national leaders collaborate in the name of economic development.”

The port and its partners delivered more than $25 million in public utilities and infrastructure to support the Reimann Industrial Center and Darigold, Ryckman said.

Darigold is the processing and marketing arm of the Northwest Dairy Association, a dairy farmer collective and one of the largest dairy producers in the U.S. The association’s farmer-owners approved the Pasco project in 2021 and selected the Pasco site based on its proximity to supplying dairy farms, available workforce and transportation infrastructure.