Growing global demand for organic cheese has seen farmer-owned co-operative OMSCo, (the Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative Ltd), secure new export contracts and as a result, become the UK’s largest organic cheese and whey producer; achieved exclusively from export sales.
OMSCO began exporting in 2007 which has proved to be an extremely successful strategy and has positioned the company to take full advantage of growing global demand for organic dairy products.
OMSCo’s latest export initiative has led to a partnership with privately owned and independent cheese producer Dairy Partners, to produce organic mozzarella for the USA market using OMSCo’s specialist USDA-compliant organic milk pool. Having worked closely with US customers to meet their specifications as well as develop a dedicated supply chain, production commenced last week at Dairy Partner’s Carmarthenshire plant with a planned 800 tonnes of manufacture in the first year.
“Together with our rapidly expanding organic cheddar business, and our award winning Kingdom cheese brand, OMSCo is expecting to produce over 1800 tonnes of premium organic cheese in the coming year for export,” explains Richard Hampton, Managing Director, OMSCo. “We are now operating at a scale where the whey stream has become viable to segregate, of which we are now the UK’s largest producer. This provides us with further development prospects”.
“Our organic mozzarella launch is really positive news for the UK dairy industry, and illustrates the international opportunities for British organic dairy products. It is also another important step in the development of our strategy to generate premiums for our organic milk by offering our customers milk with unique attributes and technical advantages” explains Mr Hampton.
“We are delighted to be working with OMSCo, who share our business values and are following a similar strategy in terms of business diversification” adds Robert Peel, Managing Director of Dairy Partners “We are one of a few dairy processors in Wales and this new business will effectively double the amount of organic milk processed in Wales. We are very happy to be involved in an initiative supporting the Welsh dairy industry and its farmers”.
