The state's Strategic Implementation Assessment Team, a group of state agency heads and other experts which is tasked with reviewing the progress of the 10 regional economic development councils, toured Currier Plastics in Auburn and Cayuga Milk Ingredients in Aurelius. 

Cayuga Milk Ingredients, which produces powdered milk, cream and a host of other dairy products, was a priority project for the central New York council and received $4 million in state funding. (The overall cost of the project was nearly $100 million.) 

The plant, which opened in June 2014 and has 65 employees, is now operating at full capacity and processes about 1.9 million pounds of milk each day, according to company CEO Kevin Ellis. 

Cayuga Milk Ingredients has customers throughout the world. Ellis mentioned Canada, Israel, Pakistan, Uruguay and countries in southeast Asia as examples. 

Ellis, who joined Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a trade mission to Cuba, hopes to add the island nation to the company's list of clients. 

After a brief introduction, the assessment team received a tour of the facility. It impressed members of the team, including Secretary of State Cesar Perales. 

"You guys are doing a fabulous job," Perales said. 

Andrew Fish, executive director of the Cayuga Economic Development Agency and a member of the central New York regional council, said when Cayuga Marketing was constructing the facility, they kept their options open for the future. 

"Every instance, as they were making this investment, they were also thinking about the next investment and expansion and how do we continue to grow here," Fish said. "That was intentional and they planned it that way." 

Ellis said there are already plans to expand the plant. He said the farmers that are members of Cayuga Marketing, the entity that spearheaded the construction of Cayuga Milk Ingredients, have already decided to invest in increasing the size of the facility. 

While Cayuga Milk Ingredients is planning to grow, Currier Plastics has already completed its expansion project. 

The Auburn manufacturer received $1.75 million from the state and was supported by the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council. The work on the $21 million expansion project was completed in 2013. 

"Certainly having support from the regional council is critical to our expansion," Currier Plastics President John Currier said. "Our business is so capital intensive and it takes so long to plan the expansions that without some sort of outside help, it's a very competitive market out there. Other areas and other states are doing an awful lot.

"As a business, we have to look at those kinds of things. It's very, very important that our area is at least as competitive as, let's say, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, because those areas are very aggressive at pursuing new businesses. So it's nice to be at least on par with them."

Fish noted that New York competed with at least one other state to keep Currier's expansion in Auburn. He said they were able to put together a package that kept the company in Cayuga County. 

Currier now has 145 employees, up from 104 before the expansion. But the company might not be done expanding, Fish said. 

"We're currently talking to them about additional projects and additional growth, so we're excited about that," he said. 

Despite the growth, Currier does face challenges with finding skilled workers. Fish said the company often looks to Pennsylvania, where Penn State University has a strong plastics program, for employees. 

Ideally, those jobs would be going to local workers. 

To address the problem, Fish said Currier is partnering with Cayuga Community College to establish a plastics training program. As part of the venture, Currier will donate machines to the college to help educate students on the basics of plastics manufacturing. 

The assessment team's tour of the Cayuga County projects capped off a full day in central New York. They spent the first part of their day in Syracuse before traveling to Auburn, where they had lunch at Osteria Salina before visiting Cayuga Milk Ingredients and Currier Plastics. 

The visit comes as central New York's council is prepping its plan for the $1.5 billion Upstate Revitalization Initiative. The competition, which was launched by Cuomo, will award three upstate regions $500 million each for economic development projects. 

The three winning regions will be announced in the fall.