Europe’s dairy giant Arla Foods opens cheese facility in Bahrain as manufacturing hub for MENA region

Arla Foods, one of the world’s biggest dairy companies, has opened a cheese production facility in Bahrain.

The company opened the facility following its acquisition of American company Mondelez International’s processed cheese business in the region in May 2019, which gave it full ownership of the production site.

Arla said in a statement on October 24 it will invest approximately 50 million euros ($55 million) in the site over the next 2-3 years to increase capacity as it becomes the key strategic manufacturing hub for the company in the Middle East and North Africa.

“By 2025, Arla expects to increase annual production in Bahrain to more than 100,000 tons under both Puck®, Arla®, Dano®, Kraft® and Private Label brands while creating new jobs in the process,” said the company.

The production site has a current capacity of around 66,000 tons.

Product categories produced in Bahrain will be sold primarily in the Middle East as well as the U.S., West Africa and Southeast Asia, Arla said.

Most of Arla’s products sold in the MENA region have been produced in Europe although the company has some local production in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

Since 2010, Arla has more than doubled its sales organically across the MENA region, which is its largest commercial area outside Europe, according to the company.

Its retail and foodservice revenue in the MENA region reached 560 million euros in 2018, it said.

The co-operative is owned by some 9,900 farmers in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, UK, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Belgium.

($1 = 0.90 euros)

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