The Government and industry have announced a joint €35m investment in dairy processing innovation. This fund will be used to position Irish milk processors among the best in the world, such as Finland’s Valio, where over 30% of its gross margin comes from products less than five years old.

At the announcement at Arrabawn co-op’s premises in Nenagh, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said: “Investing in product and process innovation ensures that value is added to high-quality raw materials in Ireland and helps to mitigate the impact of commodity price volatility.”

The investment is in the form of two initiatives. €25m will fund the Dairy Processing Technology Centre (DPTC) which will be hosted by University of Limerick. Furthermore, a €10m investment will be made by Teagasc and the dairy industry shareholders in the expansion of the Moorepark Technology Ltd (MTL) pilot plant facility in Fermoy, Co Cork.

Of the €25m, Enterprise Ireland will provide €16m, while industry will contribute €9m. Seven processors are investing in both initiatives, with Lakeland Dairies part of the DPTC consortium only. The Irish Dairy Board and North Cork Co-op are investing in MTL.

Varying levels of funding are paid dependent on scale, with tier one companies (GIIL, Dairygold, Kerry) paying the most, followed by tier two (Lakeland, Aurivo, Carbery) and Arrabawn and Tipperary in tier three.

While there was widespread surprise when the University of Limerick was chosen, it has experience leading multi-partner interdisciplinary research centres. It will lead nine other research organisations, including Teagasc, UCD, UCC, DCU and TCD.

Newly appointed CEO of the DPTC, Padraig McPhillips said that the two key outputs will be knowledge and people and that both will be used to deliver more efficient processes and better products and ingredients.