Davisco Foods International, a privately held, family-owned, dairy business headquartered in Le Sueur, Minn., has broken ground on a new US$40m mozzarella cheese plant.

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Based in Lake Norden, South Dakota, the plant will create 60 additional jobs at the new cheese plant, secure the 90 existing jobs, and dramatically increase the market for milk produced by area farmers by as much as 5 million pounds of milk per day. The plant will initially support the milk production from 30,000 cows, and eventually expand to require the milk production from 75,000 cows. Construction on the new project will take approximately 15-18 months to complete.


“This is a major investment for us at Davisco,” said CEO Mark Davis: “The new Lake Norden facility will give area farmers a steady and reliable market for milk and make it possible for Davisco to increase its overall cheese production capabilities. We also intend to process the whey produced at the new cheese plant at our adjacent food ingredient plant to make our specialty whey protein isolates.”


Land O’Lakes, a national, farmer-owned food and agricultural cooperative, will market the cheese produced at the new plant, and will partner with Davisco in milk procurement for the plant.


Land O’Lakes president and CEO Jack Gherty added: “This project, and the Land O’Lakes/Davisco business alliance that helped make it possible, reflect our two organisations’ shared commitment to the long-term success of the Upper Midwest dairy industry.”

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