Dairygold invests €117m in two Irish dairy processing units

Dairygold has invested about €117m in its dairy processing units at Mallow and Mitchelstown in County Cork, Ireland, which is expected to create 115 full-time jobs by 2020.

The expansion will also produce 400 temporary construction jobs.

The firm was supported in the project by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

Talking to Agriand, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD said: "Food is a key sector which we have specifically targeted as part of our action plan for jobs, and driven by Simon Coveney, this area has seen very substantial jobs growth in the past three years.

"Today’s €117m investment announcement, supported by my department through Enterprise Ireland, is a massive statement of Dairygold’s post-quota ambitions and of their innovation capability."

The investment is a result of the abolition of the milk quotas from April 2015 that will allow farmers to produce as much milk as they wish. Dairygold’s 3,000 milk suppliers have projected a 60% increase in milk production by 2020.

Agriland quoted Dairygold chief executive Jim Woulfe as saying: "At the heart of our post-quota strategy is our new milk supply agreement between our milk suppliers and the society.

"The milk forecasting element of this agreement gives Dairygold visibility of milk supply volumes for a number of years into the future.

"Therefore we have devised a modular expansion plan that allows additional milk processing capacity to come on-stream if and when needed. We expect to make additional investments in Mallow in the coming years to cater for our members’ further milk expansion."

The project is currently in its planning stage and the company is expected to make further announcements in the coming months.

Considered to be Irelands’s largest farmer-owned dairy co-operative, Dairygold processed more than 960 million litres of milk in 2013 (20% of Ireland’s milk pool), to produce different cheese and dairy ingredients that were exported to about 50 countries.

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Image: Dairygold has invested in larger facilities to meet the projected increase in the demand for dairy products. Photo: courtesy of Naypong/freedigitalmedia.net.