Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Simon Coveney, officially opened the new $12m facility. The centre boasts some of the most advanced dairy processing equipment in the US dairy sector and includes a state-of-the-art Innovation Centre that will provide functional cheese solutions to its US Food Ingredient and Food Service customers.
The new facility will increase IDB’s US Food Ingredient production capacity by 40%.
The US expansion programme provides IDB with greater scale in the value-added cheese ingredients sector and is in line with its strategy to invest in high growth and profitable dairy businesses.
The business provides an important route-to-market for Irish casein, and through its extensive US customer base is opening up further opportunities for Irish dairy products.
“This new facility will further strengthen the positioning of Ireland and Irish agribusiness expertise in the US, as well as supporting the economic well-being of Irish dairy farmers,” said Coveney. “We are entering an exciting time for the Irish dairy sector, as milk quotas are abolished from next April, and [this] opening represents the kind of investment that will help the sector realise its true potential.”
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