GERMANY – Dutch dairy cooperative, FrieslandCampina has signed an agreement with DMK Group (DMK) for the production of mozzarella cheese, with the deal effective in 2019.

DMK Group, one of the leading dairy companies in Germany will bring inits expertise and production facilities for the production of mozzarella forFrieslandCampina.

The company will also modernize and expand the Georgsmarienhütte location in Germany for optimal production of cheese at the site.

“We have a strong portfolio in cheese and want to grow further in cheese types such as mozzarella.

The cooperation with DMK fits in well with our strategy to further expand our process capacity through selective partnerships, besides own networkinvestments.

The co-manufacturing agreement will allow us to expand our portfolio in, among others mozzarella, to drive value with our members’ milk and to improve the service to our customers,” said Hans Meeuwis, President of FrieslandCampina Dairy Essentials.

FrieslandCampina will supply milk form its members, expertise and recipes and market the finished mozzarella products.

“We annually process about 8 billion kilos of milk. The cooperation with FrieslandCampina is part of our raw milk plan.

In the future, our raw milk will come from several sources. First and foremost, we process our members’ milk and market our products.

Secondly, we process milk within the scope of plant contract manufacturing agreement, like the agreement we have entered into with FrieslandCampina.

In this way we will obtain a position in which we can make maximum use of our plant structure,” said Ingo Müller, CEO of DMK Group.

DMK group supplies customers a wide range of products from basic milk products and cheese through dairy ingredients to baby food, ice cream and health products.

It consists of 7,500 active dairy farmers and cooperative owners and around 7,700 company employees and is one of the largest cooperative based dairy companies in Europe.

The Netherlands-based dairy company recently agreed to acquire Spanish cheese co-packer and distributor Millan Vicente.

The deal further strengthened FrieslandCampina’s position in supplying cheese to Spanish and Portuguese consumers.