Glanbia has opened one of the largest cheese plants in the world in a remote corner of New Mexico, making the company the biggest producer of cheddar cheese in the United States.
A joint venture with the Greater Southwest Agency, the new plant cost $190 million (€151 million) to establish and will produce 113 million kg of cheese a day, with a truckload of cheese leaving the facility every hour.
Glanbia's group managing director John Moloney said the new plant was an extension of the company's strategy of global expansion. He pointed out that, with Ireland exporting 85 per cent of its dairy products, Glanbia has an exporting experience that can help US producers to discover outside markets.
"We bring a different perspective which I think fits well into the long-term ambitions of dairy farmers in the region," he said.
Glanbia will operate the plant and market its product while, the Greater Southwest Agency, which is owned by New Mexico dairy farmers, will provide the milk supply. New Mexico is the fastest-growing milk production region in the US and Southwest Cheese chairman Mike McCloskey said this growth had created the need for a partnership with a major food producer.
Until now, New Mexico dairy farmers have had to ship most of their milk out of the state, transporting it up to 1000 miles by road.
"The money lost was just lost on the road and nobody benefited except the trucking companies who were competing with each other," Mr McCloskey said.
Southwest visited cheese plants throughout the US, Canada and Europe before choosing Glanbia, which already has extensive operations in Idaho. Mr Moloney said the scale of Glanbia's plants meant that it could process whey, a bi-product of cheese, more efficiently than in Europe.
Whey is the basis of many protein drinks and nutrition bars that are a fast-growing part of the food business within which Mr Moloney said Glanbia is seeking to play a leading role.
The US currently exports only 7.5 per cent of its cheese but Mr Moloney said that the new plant would soon be exporting 5-10 per cent of its output, mainly to Asia.
Southwest chief executive Maurice Keane said the New Mexico plant had been completed on time and within budget. He dismissed a report that the company had faced labour relations difficulties.
"This is a non-union facility. The motto here is 'go faster'," he said.
The plant will employ 200 people full-time and will require 100,000 cows to provide the milk supply. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson opened the facility yesterday and Ireland's ambassador to the US, Noel Fahey travelled to the ceremony from Washington.
Mr Fahey noted that 50,000 people work for Irish firms in the US, about 8,000 of them in the food industry.
"The Government sees this as a very important way forward for the Irish food industry," he said.
