The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) which markets in excess of €2 billion worth of products, has announced it is investing €20 million in a joint venture with Saudi firm Al Wazeen to build a new cheese manufacturing facility in Riyadh in the coming months. The deal which is the first venture into the Middle East region by the IDB, will be strategically important for Ireland in a post-quota market and comes as the Irish dairy industry plans to increase milk production by 50% by the year 2020. The plant will cover more than two acres and will use technology developed by the Irish agricultural advisory body Teagasc. Dried milk powder will be exported from Ireland to the plant to produce fresh cream cheeses popular in the region. Saudi Arabia has an economic growth of more than 6% per year but less than 2% of the country’s land is arable. Cheese demand alone is expected to increase by more than 60% in a decade. The Saudi market is also expected to reopen to Irish beef. Before Saudi Arabia banned Irish beef because of BSE, Irish beef accounted for 40% of all beef sold to the country.
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