Germany stops Muller expansion

Germany’s trade monopolies watchdog has drawn a line through Muller Milk plans to takeover a cheese making company that would give the multinational dairy almost a monopoly in the country’s production of traditional sour milk (Harz) cheese.

Nine years ago Muller started producing the typical north German cheese – made from skimmed milk quark and with a fat content of only 1%. Since then three major manufacturers have been taken over with most production shifted to Muller’s giant Leppersdorf dairy run by its eastern German subsidiary Sachsenmilch. The latest move towards virtual dominance of the Harz cheese market featured a bid for the Poelmeyer-Group that ran two plants producing some 10,000 tonnes of the low fat cheese annually. Currently Muller is believed to produce some 18,000 t of Harz cheese (and other soft cheeses) at Leppersdorf which was expanded at a cost of €300 million when Harz production began there.

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