Ornua, Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products, has opened a new cheese manufacturing facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The €20m state-of-the-art facility will manufacture white cheeses for the Saudi Arabian market, the fifth largest dairy importer in the world, as well as providing a central hub to access the high growth dairy markets in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region., where white cheeses are hugely popular.
The new facility will use technology developed by Ornua and Teagasc to produce a range of bespoke fresh white cheeses for the increasingly sophisticated bakery sector, retail delis and foodservice customers.
The technology allows milk ingredients to be recombined for fresh white cheese production.
The facility also includes an Innovation Hub which will be used to co-develop customised ‘white cheese’ solutions with customers and will provide a direct route to market and value for Irish dairy.