Arla’s Upahl dairy to export east

China and Russia are to be target markets for a new Arla project in Germany, centred on the Upahl dairy in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which merged with Arla in 2011. There, around 500 employees process over 700 million kg milk, including 80 million litres of organically produced milk, per year. Arla wants to keep the accent on organic while increasing throughput by 8 to 10% over the next two years.

Manfred Remus, a director of Arla Foods Germany/Netherlands says the target for what he calls the new bio-competence centre will be exports, particularly of “bio” cream cheeses and quarks, to countries outside the EU.

Upahl (along with the rapidly expanding Arla-MUH facilities in German Rhineland Palatinate) will be receiving part of a total €268 million investment package planned for 2013. New buildings and production lines will be mostly aimed at boosting exports of added-value dairy products by the various concerns, as well as improving environmental protection around the plants, adds Remus. It is thought that Upahl will be getting a €5 million slice of this investment cake during the present year.

Upahl dairy was formerly the headquarters of the Hansano dairy cooperative.