Sour on milk: no bids for Mat Maid

Frontiersman

MAT-SU — Optimism to sell state-owned Matanuska Maid Dairy curdled when Friday’s 1 p.m. deadline to bid on the failing enterprise came and went with no bidders.

The state Creamery Board, which is also the Alaska Board of Agriculture and Conservation, had hoped to get at least one interested party willing to bid the $3.5 million asking price for Mat Maid’s Anchorage and Palmer properties and facilities. That not one bid was received came as a shock to ag board member John Schirack of Wasilla.

“I’m very much surprised,” he said. “There were quite a few people who requested packets [of information]; about maybe half a dozen people took tours of the facilities. I haven’t heard any feedback as far as if there was any dialogue why [nobody bid]. We didn’t anticipate anyone would come in and continue operation.”

Perhaps $3.5 million was too much to expect, Schirack said. “I guess we have to step back and look at that.”

The state Creamery Board met Friday evening to discuss where it goes from here, and it’s likely to be selling off assets piecemeal or have an auction, he said.

Mat Maid lost about $30,000 in October, a small amount compared the hundreds of thousands over previous months, Schirack said. “But it’s still losing money and you can’t continue to operate at a loss. Obviously, we can’t continue running Mat Maid and are continuing the shutdown mode of it.

“There are some things we have to discuss as a board and see what our options are,” Schirack said.

In addition to discussing the bid situation, the board also set a tentative date of Dec. 17 to stop accepting local milk. That may be too soon for the new Southcentral Alaska Dairy Joint Venture cooperative, which is working furiously to get its Palmer facility up and running.

In the event Mat Maid stops taking local milk before Southcentral is ready, Northern Lights Dairy in Delta Junction has agreed to take that milk for a short time until Southcentral Alaska Dairy Joint Venture can, Schirack said.

Although Mat Maid finds itself in the same situation it did near the beginning of June by being weeks away from closure, Schirack’s satisfied the Creamery Board did everything it could and explored multiple options to save the 70-year-old dairy.

“The one positive that came out of all this, as I see it, is in the previous arrangement to shut down Mat Maid there was no correspondence with the producers and no options for them,” he said. “At least now they have another option out there to sell [their milk].”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.