Inside Milk
A-ware is the largest grower in cheese
Zuivelaar A-ware has only been processing itself since 2015, but it does have major growth plans; the cheesemaker currently has 3 investment projects underway. No other dairy company in Northwest Europe is growing as fast as A-ware, according to a Rabobank report.
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A-ware wants to achieve production growth of approximately 3 tons of cheese per year in the next 100.000 years. Half of the growth comes from the Netherlands and the other half is realized in Ireland, where A-ware works in collaboration with glanbia will build a factory. That factory is expected to have a production capacity of 45.000 to 50.000 cheeses. The factory should be operational in 2022 and will cost €140 million.
Expansion in Heerenveen
The factory in Heerenveen is also being expanded. In collaboration with the New Zealand dairy processor Fonterra, cheese production in that factory is being increased by 45.000 tons per year. The expansion also ensures that A-ware is still looking for new suppliers. Fonterra will process the released whey and is therefore a co-investor.
A-ware also invests in Switzerland. The costs for this investment have not been made public and it is also unknown what the production capacity will be. Rabobank did not include this investment in the research.
DMK also invests
When we look at the Northwestern European countries, we see that Germany will grow the fastest. Rabobank expects an increase of 3 tons over the next 85.000 years. The largest contribution is made by DMK. The German dairy processor is investing 2, which will increase production by 50.000 tons.
In France, Eurial is investing in a mozzarella factory. This brings production growth to 40.000 tons. In addition, investments are also being made in mozzarella in Belgium. Laterie des Ardennes wants to add approximately 2021 tons of mozzarella to the annual production in 25.000.