A planned expansion of Meadow Gold Dairies’ Hilo processing plant has cleared a significant hurdle.
A planned expansion of Meadow Gold Dairies’ Hilo processing plant has cleared a significant hurdle.
The project’s final environmental assessment was released Tuesday. It found no significant impacts.
Meadow Gold — which occupies 1.42 acres of state land in at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Leilani Street — plans to expand onto adjacent state land in the Kanoelehua Industrial Area.
The expansion plan would also provide a roadway lot that would allow Leilani Street extension.
Bahman Sadeghi, a former Big Island dairy farmer who acquired the Meadow Gold brand and most of its assets in April 2020, told the Tribune-Herald in December the expansion would basically double the facility’s capacity.
“We’re running practically 24/7 … fulfilling, as much as we can, the state’s requirement (of dairy products) — all out of Hilo,” Sadeghi said at that time. “So, we really are busting at the seams, so to speak.”
Sadeghi stated that Kanoelehua Industrial Area receives approximately 200,000 gallons of milk per month from Cloverleaf dairy in Hawi. This is the only Hawaii dairy that produces milk for commercial processing.
Sadeghi stated that Meadow Gold will expand the plant to allow it to produce more products and process more milk.
He said the expansion of the plant would “bring back the culture” that existed prior to the shuttering of Meadow Gold’s Oahu processing facility.
