Agropur Pours Final Funds into Plant

By Gerry Clark

Canadian dairy major player Agropur dairy cooperative is gearing up to pour C$3 million (nearly US$1.99 million) in its Oka, Quebec, plant, winding up a total C$5 million project.

The final round of funding is earmarked primarily for upgrading the site's cheese vats and automating the moulding of semi-soft cheeses, company leaders announced this week. The previously invested C$2 million was used to furnish the plant with new ripening cellars during the past two years.

"It's the oldest cheese-processing plant in North America," Pierre Robert, president of Agropur's Fine Cheese Division, told Dairy Network.com Wednesday. "It's 108 years old and has been in constant production."

Projected processing capabilities of the three-level, 80-employee plant are being regarded as proprietary information, Robert said.

While keeping mum on specifics, Robert did say "the plant has been going through significant increases in the last three years, tripling output."

The upgrades will allow the plant to trim down the time needed for operations, achieving the same volume in five days it now takes seven days to accomplish, Robert explained.

"We were working at a full-tilt basis," he said.

Employees will convert to a five-day-a-week cycle once the work is completed, scheduled for early 2001. However, the modernization will enable the site to boost productivity, with company leaders hoping to return to a 7-day work schedule with heightened output before the end of 2002.

"Subscribing to high quality standards associated with both food safety—HACCP—and the structuring of manufacturing processes—ISO 9001—the Oka cheese plant is becoming better and better equipped to marry tradition and modernism and to meet growing market demand," Agropur leaders said.

In addition to Oka cheese, the plant four years ago began manufacturing Havarti-style cheese, which is marketed under the Danesborg brand. "This new production is growing at a rate of more than 10% per year, which is forcing the plant to increase its production capacity," Agropur leaders said.

The C$1.5 billion cooperative operates 18 plants across Canada.