Pictured at the event (l-r): Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD; Dairygold Chairman, Bertie O’Leary; Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Defence Simon Coveney TD; Julie Sinnamon, CEO Enterprise Ireland; Dairygold Chief Executive Jim Woulfe; Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD

Dairygold is to create 115 jobs in Cork as part of a multi-million expansion of its dairy processing facilities in Mallow and Mitchelstown.

The farmer owned dairy co-operative is investing €83.5 million in the regeneration of its milk processing site at Mallow, and a further €33.5 million upgrading the Castlefarm dairy processing complex in Mitchelstown.

Both investments are supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland.

The Taoiseach, Mr Enda Kenny TD laid the foundation stone for Dairygold’s the new milk processing site at Mallow and performed the official opening of Castlefarm Dairy Processing Complex in Mitchelstown.

The Mallow investment will see approximately 400 people employed on the site at peak construction. Dairygold itself expects to employ an additional 115 people full-time across its milk processing activities sites by 2020 to manage the increase in milk production over the next five years. The Dairygold expansion will also see a significant number of additional jobs in farming and indirect and downstream activity created in the businesses that supply goods and services to Dairygold.

Dairygold is Ireland’s largest farmer owned dairy co-operative, processing over 960 million litres (20 per cent of Ireland’s milk pool) in 2013, to produce a range of cheese and dairy ingredients for export to more than 50 countries.

From next April Ireland’s dairy farmers will be free to produce as much milk as they wish following the abolition of EU dairy quotas and Dairygold’s 3,000 milk suppliers have forecast to increase annual milk production by up to 60 per cent by 2020. This equates to an increase of 600 million litres per annum and requires a major expansion in Dairygold’s processing capacity.

“Our Post-Quota Strategy not only ensures that we will have the capacity in place to process all of our members’ milk in the post-quota era but it also significantly improves our technological capability allowing us to produce higher value dairy ingredients ”, said Dairygold Chief Executive Mr Jim Woulfe.

Dairygold’s €33.5 million investment has expanded and upgraded the Co-op’s milk processing facilities at the Castlefarm Dairy Processing Complex in Mitchelstown which can now process in excess of 16 million litres of milk and a further 18 million litres of whey per week. The investment will also significantly improve the processing and energy efficiency of the Castlefarm operation.

The €83.5 million Mallow investment will redevelop the existing dairy processing site to deliver a world-class dairy processing facility that can produce a suite of dairy ingredient milk powders up to Infant Milk Formula standards.