A Florida, NY resident was arraigned over the weekend in local justice court for trying to sell more than 1,000 plastic milk crates from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania dairies at auction on ebay.com.
  
            Cited was Rafael Vidal. New York, as other states, makes it illegal for anyone to possess or sell milk cases without the owner's permission.
    
            Bruce Krupke, Executive Vice President of the Northeast Dairy Foods Association in Syracuse, NY, said, 'It was alarming to find out one single person was in possession of so many milk cases and was actually trying to sell them on a public forum such as eBay®.'
 
            Earl Fink, Executive Vice President for the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers in Harrisburg, another organization that represents milk processors, said, 'The huge cost of lost milk crates contributes to higher milk prices.'

            He continued, 'For some milk companies the replacement cost for these cases can be in excess of a million dollars a year.'

            The milk cases being offered for sale by the individual were identified as the property of at least 15 different milk companies from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  One company identified as a plaintiff, Elmhurst Dairy of Jamaica, New York, welcomed the complaint against the accused seller. 'Each year we spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to locate the missing cases' said Jay Valentine, General Manager of Elmhurst Dairy. 'Each year the cost to replace these crates is hundreds of thousands of dollars, which hurts our bottom line and eventually leads to higher costs of milk for our customers.'

            New York State requires a $2 deposit per milk case from retail and foodservice customers in counties outside of New York City.  Inside the City the deposit is $.50.

            Krupke commented further, 'It is our industry's hope that this enforcement action sends a signal to the public to help by not taking or accepting the cases and seeing they are returned to milk companies.'  He continued, 'In the end it will help keep the cost of milk down if these companies do not have to spend so much money replacing them each year.'

            Florida, NY, is located in Orange County, a few miles east of the Delaware River.

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The Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc. located in Syracuse, NY is a full service trade group representing dairy product processors, manufacturers and distributors in the northeast United States since 1928.

The Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers located in Harrisburg, PA is a trade group representing milk processors and distributors in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Contacts:
Bruce W. Krupke, Exec. VP, NEDF,  Phone 315-452-6455 email:  bk@nedairyfoods.org
Earl Fink, Exec. VP, PAMD,  Phone 717-238-1738 email: finkpamd@aol.com