Global fruit-prep firm to build $50M Lysander plant, create 120 jobs

LYSANDER — Agrana Fruit US, Inc., which produces fruit preparations for the dairy industry, plans to invest more than $50 million to build a fruit-processing plant in Lysander that will create about 120 jobs, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office announced today.

Agrana expects to break ground on the new 100,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution plant in April. The facility will process all types of fruit for yogurt, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

New York provided Agrana with a $600,000 grant from Empire State Development and $2 million in Excelsior tax credits. The company considered several Northeast locations for the plant, but chose New York partly because the state’s booming yogurt industry offers it a central location for production and distribution, the governor’s office said. Between 2005 and 2011, the amount of milk used to make yogurt in New York increased from 158 million pounds to about 1.2 billion pounds.

“Agrana Fruit's decision to choose New York State and Onondaga County as the place to be to grow and expand their business further establishes Upstate New York as the Silicon Valley of yogurt production,” Governor Cuomo said in the release.

The Lysander plant will be Agrana’s fourth U.S. fruit-processing facility. The others are in Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.

“Our new facility in New York will allow us to support the incredible growth of our North American customers by providing the products necessary to meet the demands of the market,” Bob Prendes, president & CEO of Agrana Fruit US, said in the release.

Agrana Fruit US, headquartered near Cleveland, Ohio, is part of Vienna, Austria–based Agrana Group, which produces sugar, starch, fruit preparation, juice concentrate, and ethanol.

Agrana Group generates annual revenue of $4 billion and employs about 8,500 people at 56 sites in 26 countries around the world.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com