Nordmilch, Germany’s largest milk processor, recorded a 10% rise in cheese sales between 1999 and 2000, its biggest ever annual increase.
Riding on a surge of interest in cheese in the wake of BSE, overall cheese consumption in Germany increased by 2% to 21.1kg per head in 2000. During that year the 15,000-member co-operative, with 22 plants processing 3.9 million tonnes of milk a year, reported that cheese sales at home and abroad topped 90,500 tonnes.
Main labels in Nordmilch’s cheese portfolio are Oldenburger (pictured above) and Burlander, although the dairy also specialises in Gouda and Edam. In addition, the co-operative has developed a powerful market presence in ready-sliced and packaged products and also shredded cheese.
Most of the company’s cheese production is carried out at a modern plant at Edewicht, near Oldenburg. It is one of the largest in Europe and in 2000 processed 583,500 tonnes of milk. Cheese production will increase under the Nordmilch banner in 2002, when the takeover of the Adelbyer Nordfriesland Milch company is completed.
Nordmilch has also reported an increase in exports, with 26.2% of all its production now shipped abroad. Announcing the results, the company said that sales so far this year indicated a positive trend in its cheese business that was set to continue for at least another 12 months.