Friesland Campina to Close Another Plant
One of the largest dairy producers in Europe, FrieslandCampina, continues to cut its surplus production capacity. After the decision of ceasing the powder production at two plants in Dronrijp and Gerkesklooster, the company takes another step and announces the intended closure of some activities at the Yoko Cheese plant in Genk, Belgium.
The plans are part of the corporate strategy “Our Goal, Our Plan”, announced on November 10, 2020. One of the goals is to structurally reduce overcapacity and achieve savings by closing plants or relocating production volumes. The company’s representatives claim that approximately 1,000 jobs will cut down by the end of 2021.
However, the situation of the Company is, the Netherlands, the home country of FrieslandCampina remains one of the most important players in the European dairy market. In the period of January-October 2020, the country was the biggest exporter of cheese totaling up to more than 130 000 tonnes. Netherlands was also at the top rank of WMP extra EU trade with the main receiving country – Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that the homeland of FrieslandCampina was both the major importer and exporter of butter intra-EU with increases of 8% and 15% respectively. The interesting fact is that even though the Netherlands accounts for 8,7% of EU milk deliveries, it represents 14,5% of EU dairy exports. This underlines the importance of the country as a dairy processor and exporter.
