from: times-standard.com
“With Humboldt Creamery’s sale to Foster Farms Dairy expected to close today, concern is growing among the company’s cash-strapped dairy producers who say they likely won’t see another milk payment until October.
”I don’t know how we’re going to pay bills around here,” said creamery member and 35-year dairyman John Vevoda. “There’s real concern. This is real.”
Humboldt Creamery filed for bankruptcy protection in April, just two months after its former CEO Rich Ghilarducci abruptly resigned, alerting the company to inaccuracies in its financial records. An FBI investigation into allegations that Ghilarducci committed fraud is ongoing.
Earlier this month, Foster Farms Dairy agreed to purchase the company’s main assets in Fernbridge and Stockton for $19.5 million at a bankruptcy auction. The largest privately owned dairy in the state, with more than 5,000 cows spread across five dairies, Foster Farms Dairy intends to continue operating the creamery, and will reportedly buy milk from the area’s producers through Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), which held a 25 percent stake in the creamery.
But local dairymen’s concerns over the arrangement are growing. Specifically, it’s the arrangement for the purchasing of organic milk that they say is worrisome.”
Tags: Cheese, Dairy, Foster Farms, Humboldt Creamery, Milk, Organic Milk, sale
