$17.5M plant to open

Press, 10 March 1987, Page 2

$17.5M plant to open

A $17.5 million cheese plant, aiming to make European-style cheeses for the export market, will be opened at Clandeboye, near Temuka, tomorrow. The plant will be an addition to the combined Tai Tapu and Temuka Cooperative dairy companies, which will legally merge in June. The chairman of the Tai Tapu Co-operative company, Mr Graham Wilson, said yesterday that building began a year ago, and that preliminary production had started

and would continue until about August, when the next full production season would begin. The plant would then be in “full swing,” he said. Gouda and parmesan cheese, samples of which had already been made in the plant, were “very successful,” Mr Wilson said. They would be on the local market soon. Most production would be for export, he said, although some cheeses could be expected on New Zealand . shelves before the end of May.

The general manager of the Temuka Co-operative Dairy Company, Mr Volker Rademacher, said European cheeses the plant would produce could match the real thing. Mr Wilson said the new plant would be highly automated, with most equipment coming from Sweden. Sixteen extra staff had already been taken on, but he expected more to be employed as production increased. All milk used would come from Canterbury and North Otago.