Flagship Glanbia dairy facility opens in Kilkenny

Some 1,600 direct and indirect jobs will be created with today's opening of Glanbia Ingredients Ireland's €185 million dairy facility in Belview, its chief executive Jim Bergin has said.

The 23,500 sq metre facility in Kilkenny is finished to meet infant formula standards and will manufacture milk powder products and nutritional ingredients for export markets. It will focus on Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Central America. While it will employ just 76 people, Mr Bergin said total job creation would be in the region of 1,600 because of indirect jobs on farms and related businesses. This would contribute an estimated €400 million to the economy.

Anti-water charge protesters gathered at the entrance of the plant from early morning to greet Taoiseach Enda Kenny when he arrived to open the plant and there was a strong Garda presence. Mr Kenny was flanked by EU commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan, Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.

Mr Kenny said developments such as these would make 2015 “the year of rural recovery”.

“This is a very significant day for the country’s dairy sector and for the south east region,” he said.

Mr Coveney noted that it was the largest indigenous infrastructural investment by an Irish company in 80 years. It is also the first greenfield dairy site to be opened in Ireland in more than 40 years.

“This flagship investment is a real sign of confidence in the future of Ireland’s dairy sector,” he said and added that it would help to cement Ireland’s position as a leading player in global dairy markets. Glanbia’s 4,800 farmer suppliers have estimated that they will increase milk production by 63 per cent when the milk quota regime ends on March 31st. The dairy processor already processes 1.8 billion litres of milk, or 30 per cent of the total milk pool.

EU commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan said the Glanbia group had started to plan the project four years ago and during that time New Zealand had increased its milk pool by almost 3.5 billion litres, or the equivalent of 65 per cent of Ireland’s entire output.

“In the past four years the changes have been dramatic and Europe has had to stand on the sidelines while world trade in dairy has grown from 53 billion litres to 65 billion litres,” he said.

“Each year until 2030, at least 150 million people will be entering the middle class, bringing almost 60 per cent of the world’s population into a middle income bracket.”

He said demand for dairy in China alone was forecast to grow by 43 per cent by 2019. “To meet the pace of development the predicted pace of dairy growth cannot afford to slow,” he said.