General Mills, the US multinational manufacturer of many branded consumer foods including Yoplait and Häagen-Dazs, has signed a partnership agreement with Wisconsin dairy co-op Organic Valley to source milk from around 20 organic farms where they intend to add approximately 3,000 acres over the next three years.

General Mills plans to increase the land area where it sources its organic ingredients from 120,000 acres to 250,000 by 2019. The new partnership will help the company double its organic acreage and meet its goal of increasing organic food sales from $675m (€592m) to $1bn (€877m) by 2019.

It takes three years to bring dairy farms completely into organic status under US Department of Agriculture certified organic status.

General Mills has increased its organic acreage by 120% since 2009 and is now among the top five organic ingredient buyers in the US. It claims to be the third-largest manufacturer of organic foods in the US.