Irish food company Glanbia Co-Op and Dutch dairy producer Royal A-ware are collaborating to invest in an enormous, €200m continental cheese factory at Belview, Kilkenny, where the sod was turned at the site today.
The factory will be built by joint venture company Kilkenny Cheese and will cover 18,000 square metres. It will produce more than 50,000 tonnes of continental cheese each year, including Edam, Gouda and Emmental varieties, which will be brought to market by Royal A-ware through their established channels.
The first of the cheeses will go to market in 2024, according to the partners. Glanbia will supply as much as 450 million litres of milk to the facility, provided by its member suppliers, thereby avoiding having to send some milk for processing elsewhere during peak milk supply periods, as happens at present.
Glanbia chief executive Jim Bergin said: “We are delighted to partner with Royal A-ware, a leading global producer of continental cheese, to build this world-class facility in the south-east of Ireland. The joint venture approach brings expertise in continental cheese production and a new route to market for our farmers. Today marks a significant step on the road to diversifying our product offering after Brexit. Our co-op will also benefit from the additional whey and cream streams produced by this new facility.
Royal A-ware chief executive Jan Anker added: “When we first announced our partnership with Glanbia in 2019, we said we were taking another step towards achieving our goals of working with strategic partners to build innovative and sustainable agri-food chains and offering our customers an enhanced product portfolio.
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“Today’s milestone will see our company bring high-quality continental cheese, produced through a local supply chain, into the marketplace. We look forward to this great new facility opening in 2024.”
Kilkenny Cheese will use highly advanced carbon-efficient processing technology and includes an enhanced sustainability design.
As part of this focus, it will utilise reusable packing crates saving a substantial amount of cardboard and incorporate new vacuum packing machines delivering yearly savings of more than 80 tonnes of plastic.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar turned the sod, together with agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue.
Varadkar said: “The UK’s decision to leave the European Union was a seismic event for Ireland’s agri-food sector and the 163,000 people it employs.
“Two years on from when that decision took effect, the picture is more hopeful than we could ever have imagined. Employment has remained relatively steady and the dairy sector is doing relatively well. The industry has responded successfully to what was potentially disastrous.
“Our business owners and farmers have risen to every challenge, and have worked incredibly hard to protect jobs and even grow business. I believe this facility is a perfect example of that resilience, that flexibility and determination.”
The project is supported by Enterprise Ireland, whose food & sustainability divisional manager Mark Christal added: “Dairy is Ireland’s number one indigenous export sector and critically important to our rural economy.
“This project will see the creation of high-value exports that will create 80 direct jobs in Kilkenny, adding to the prosperity of the south-east region and benefiting over 4,500 farm families. Sustainable growth is a central pillar of our Leading in a Changing World strategy and this project demonstrates the importance of sustainability to the global competitiveness of our enterprise base.”
