Home > Agriculture > Lakeland Dairies opens €40m expansion of operations in Co. Cavan

Lakeland Dairies opens €40m expansion of operations in Co. Cavan

Written by Robert McHugh, on 7th Sep 2017. Posted in Agriculture

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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, has today officially opened a new €40million technologically advanced milk powder plant at Lakeland Dairies, Bailieboro, Co. Cavan. 
 
The Bailieboro facility is among the most advanced milk powder plants in the world and one of the largest such plants in Europe. The investment has been supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland. 

The operation is creating 85 new jobs across the Lakeland Dairies Group between now and 2019. Over 180 construction workers were employed by contractors during the building, installation and commissioning phases for the new facilities.  With 2,400 dairy farmers supplying milk to the co-operative across 15 counties north and south, Lakeland Dairies now employs over 800 people.
 
The company processes over 1.2 Billion litres of farm produced milk annually into 240 value-added dairy foodservice products and food ingredients for export to over 80 countries worldwide.
 
This is Lakeland Dairies’ third milk drying plant at its Bailieboro processing centre. It will now produce over 160,000 tonnes of milk powders and 50,000 tonnes of butter annually on the same site, which allows great flexibility in milk throughput and overall economies of scale for the food ingredients business. 
 
The development by Lakeland Dairies is designed to ensure that the co-operative is well positioned to take advantage of all future market opportunities for its milk producers. The expansion saw the installation of a new 7 tonne per hour milk dryer and evaporators where total milk powder production capacity has now increased to 20 tonnes per hour.  
 
Welcoming the investment, Minister for Agriculture , Food and Marine, Michael Creed said, "International markets hold big growth potential for Ireland as a global exporter of high quality dairy food ingredients. With this impressive new facility, Lakeland Dairies will compete strongly in serving its existing long standing customers and will also access new markets. The new plant is a model of innovation and efficiency and is exemplary of the very high standards of food quality and production which our dairy industry is projecting across the world."

Lakeland Dairies’ Chairman, Alo Duffy added, "With this new facility Lakeland Dairies will compete at the forefront of the global dairy food ingredients industry. This development will underpin our further progress in a rapidly changing world of international trade where we have a heritage of over 120 years in dairy farming and an unstinting commitment to making the most excellent dairy products for all of our customers."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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