New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has confirmed to just-food that it is in talks with European dairy processors over a joint venture in cheese and whey production.
A report in The Irish Independent said Fonterra had already signed letters of interest with at least two of the processors. Fonterra Europe’s general manager, Koert Liekelema, told just-food: “We are having conversations with many people and hope to progress a few to the next stage in the next couple of months.”
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Liekelema, is refusing to rule out the possibility of the involvement of a UK or Irish company, the publication said.
Liekelema told The Irish Independent that milk production in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Poland had “the most scope to expand”. However, he said that Ireland had “more potential than most”, the newspaper said.
“We’re interested in linking with a hard cheese manufacturer that has scale and is willing to invest,” Liekelema was quoted as saying.
“A hard cheese manufacturer would allow us to improve the seasonality of supply of cheese to our customers, while at the same time giving us access to high quality whey which we think is a fantastic product for the specialist proteins that we are finding a lot of demand for in sports drinks andconfectionery. It would also allow us to pool our R&D expertise with our partners,” he explained.
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