With the participation of the trade minister, Mogens Jensen, dairy giant Arla yesterday inaugurated a brand new lactose manufacturing plant in Jutland.
The facility, one of the firm's biggest ever investments, is located in Nørre Vium near Videbæk and took one and a half years to build at an estimated cost of 900 million kroner.
With the new plant, Arla can look forward to securing lucrative export deals since lactose – a form of sugar which is a by-product of cheese production – can be used in the production of various ingredients for the food industry.
"The demand for high-quality lactose in children's nutrition has increased over the past few years, and we expect it to keep increasing in the future," said Arla's managing director, Peder Tuborgh, in a press release.
"We already have strategic agreements in place with some of the leading global and regional children's nutrition manufacturers."
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Future expansion
The plant, which was built in extension of an existing cheese-producing facility, is part of a broader company strategy to get the most out of the various milk components left over from production.
In order to run the facility, Arla created 25 new jobs and expects the output of lactose to increase to 100,000 tonnes in the future.
