Milkiland to start production in Poland

Ukraine’s leading cheese exporting dairy, Milkiland, announces plans to establish a plant in Poland. The Milkiland group processes 550 million kg milk per year in 10 plants throughout the Ukraine and a new cheese plant in Poland would have a targeted annual output of around 20,000 tonnes. No specific site has so far been named.

According to Milkiland chairman Anatolly Yurkevych this might not be the only 2012 development by his dairy that turned over EUR284 million in 2011, a 10% increase on the year. “We’ll be looking at marketing and sales targets on the home market during 2012, but also in Russia, Belarus and Poland.” The budget for such expansion is put at around EUR50 m. Milkiland exports its Dobryana brand cheeses (with labels including Vershkovy, Smetankovy, Marble and King Arthur) to over 30 countries and is the number one Ukrainian cheese exporter to Russia.

An interesting aspect of Milkiland’s business is that this dairy sources some of its milk from own farms with around 3,000 cows milked around the city of Kyiv. This aspect is also scheduled for expansion in 2012. The number of milking cows is to be doubled according to chairman Yurkevych.