Davisco expands cheese production

USA – Davisco Foods International is investing $40 million (44m euro) in a Mozzarella cheese plant.

The plant will be built adjacent to the company’s food ingredient factory in Lake Norden, South Dakota, and will process over two million kg of milk per day. The cheese will be marketed by dairy company Land O’Lakes, while the left-over whey will be processed into whey protein isolates for use in sports and nutritional supplement drinks.

Davisco chief executive officer Mark Davis said that the expanded facility would provide farmers with a steady and reliable market for milk. Meanwhile, Land O’Lakes president and ceo Jack Gherty said: “We are at a point where critical mass and economies of scale are vital to dairy industry success. This new partnership and plant project address those issue.” Construction work will begin in early 2002 and will take up to 18 months.

Davisco operates five dairy processing plants in South Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho, producing more than 27,000kg of cheese per day. It is one of the largest suppliers of cheese to Kraft Foods.

Meanwhile, Kraft Foods is to cut 1,000 jobs as part of its integration plan with Nabisco. The job losses will be voluntary and are expected to cost the company 177 million euro in the first half of 2002. In the long term, however, it is expected to result in annual savings of 88 million euro.