Glanbia plc was the stand-out performer of the listed agribusiness companies this week, with shares in the group rallying 6% in the week to just under €17.

The jump in Glanbia plc’s share price comes after Glanbia Ireland, the joint venture business which is owned 60% by Glanbia Co-op and 40% by Glanbia plc, announced plans to build a €140m cheese plant in Belview.

New cheese plant

The new cheese plant, which will be a 50:50 joint venture investment by Glanbia Ireland and Dutch company Royal A-Ware, will have the capacity to process 450m litres of milk and will produce more than 50,000t of continental-style cheese.

Of the other listed agribusiness plcs, there were gains this week for shares in Total Produce (+5%), FBD Holdings (+2%) and Origin Enterprises (+2%).

Shares in UK supermarket giant Tesco jumped 2% in the week to £2.23.

Contrast

In contrast, shares in Kerry Group were down a little over 1% to €90.55, while Aryzta shares fell almost 5% to €1.03.

Shares in Donegal Investment Group were down 3% in the week to €8.65.

On oil markets, the price of Brent crude oil has been relatively steady this week and is currently trading at $61/barrel.