Olam to build dairy processing plant in Uruguay for US$80m

OLAM International is ploughing in US$80 million to set up a new dairy processing facility in Uruguay, which it says will help it fully integrate its dairy supply chain.

The facility will have an initial capacity of 600,000 litres of milk a day, eventually reaching one million litres a day - the level that its dairy farms owned by subsidiary New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay (NZFSU) are expected to reach.

The plant is expected to start operations in 2017, and will produce a range of dairy products from whole milk powder to butter. These will be exported to countries such as Russia, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa as well as neighbouring countries.