Hopes high for planned £14m cheese creamery
AMBITIOUS plans have been hatched for a new-build £14m cheese plant on the outskirts of Bangor.
Pentrefoelas-based dairy farmer Dafydd Wynne Finch and business colleague Rhys Williams are assessing the feasibility of constructing a small creamery with an initial annual throughput of 40m litres of milk.
Two meetings in Caernarfon with around 25 spring calving milk producers produced positive feedback, fuelling hopes the plant could be up and running as early as next year.
A vacant plot on the Bryn Cegin industrial park near Bangor has been identified as a potential location.
Mr Wynne Finch stressed the project was very much at the formative stage with finance still being discussed.
However the project partners are working with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to draw up a “clear and transparent” milk pricing formula.
They are also in talks with an established cheese sales company to market the end product.
Further input on plant design and operation will be delivered by dairy consultant Ronald Akkerman, the Dutch businessman who established Cumbria’s West Lakes Dairy Park, later acquired by Meadow Foods.
Mr Wynne Finch said: “It is early days and the project has a long way to go.
“However we are extremely excited about the future and look forward to taking charge of our own destiny.”
If the plans come to fruition, and the plant is a success, throughput could be stepped up to 100m litres of milk.
Supplies will be focussed on spring calving dairy herds which currently incur punitive milk seasonality penal- ties during the spring flush.
As such, plant output is likely to follow seasonal production patterns, with a short winter shut-down, though the project partners have not ruled out accessing the spot milk market “if the economic circumstances are right”.
Caernarfon dairy farmer Aled Jones, chairman of NFU Cymru’s Milk Board, welcomed the plans.
“I very much hope it is successful,” he said.
“For those who are committed to a spring calving pattern, I imagine a plant like this – that caters for their systems – will be an ideal match.
“It’s a very uniform set-up with the probability of a six to eight-week winter shut-down to carry out essential maintenance when supplies are short.
“Ronald Akkerman has a lot of experience of start-up processing units and with the latest design and technology, labour requirements on a one-product system should not be a problem.”
Welsh milk production continues to increase, despite difficult market conditions, and is set to hit 2bn litres by 2020.
But with the dairy sector highly dependent on processing outside of Wales, a review of the sector in 2015 called on the Welsh Government to pump-prime additional processing capacity within the country.
This proposal was ruled out with the onus instead placed on existing processors to expand capacity, and last April South Caernarfon Creameries began production at its new cheese plant at Chwilog, Pwllheli.
Such developments are few and far between, and Mr Jones said any new investment in Welsh processing capacity was to be welcomed.
“Last year we saw processors giving notice to Welsh milk producers during temporary over-supply simply because they were at the periphery of their milk field,” he said.
“I genuinely hope we can attract good, efficient processors into Wales to take advantage of our mild climate and excellent grass growing conditions.”