The Danish-Swedish co-operative has just broken ground on a new spray-drying tower at its plant near Vium to accommodate rising global sales of high-value ingredients.
And the company predicted that the availability of nutritional dairy proteins would increase in 2012 as a result of the investment at the site.
Henrik Anderson, Arla Food Ingredients CEO, said: “Sourcing sufficient supplies of high-quality whey to meet the growing demand for our products has been a challenge for us in recent years. Our partnership with DMK is an important step forward in overcoming this.”
He added: “We are very excited about the new opportunities to expand our capacity that these important investments bring.”
The firm added that it is planning further significant investments at its Danish whey processing plant over the next few years.
High-value milk proteins
The current €9m investment will allow Arla to increase production volumes of whey-based ingredients alpha-lactalbumin and caseinoglycomacropeptide (CGMP).
“Both these whey-based ingredients offer documented nutritional benefits that are increasingly sought-after by food manufacturers,” the company said.
Supplies of raw whey protein will begin arriving in Denmark at the end of 2012, Arla said, under the terms of a joint venture (JV) agreed with German dairy co-operative DMK in May.
The agreement saw work begin in October on a new €35m whey processing facility based in Nordhackstedt, Germany, which is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012.
The JV (ArNoCo) will buy an estimated 700,000 tonnes of whey protein from DMK annually, for conversion into whey protein concentrate and lactose at the German plant, which will then be dried in Denmark.
Supply chain director
Arla Foods Ingredients has undertaken to market, sell and distribute the products globally to food manufacturers.
In a separate announcement, Arla said it had appointed a new supply chain director, Povl Friis (pictured) in place of the outgoing Finn Simonsen. Friis will oversee production and procurement at the Vium site.
In a statement, Arla said: “[Friss’s] expertise and experience are valuable assets in guiding the current expansion of the plant and the new joint venture with DMK, while assuring daily operations, including quality and logistics.”