AFBR is proud to visit Ireland from 26 to 29 August under the invitation of Bord Bia which brings us closer physically to a truly eye-opening journey of appreciating Europe’s sustainable, yet rich and diverse dairy segments.
Our visit started with an introduction of Bord Bia’s Origin Green Programme, the world’s one and only nationally accredited sustainability programme, and then followed by a factory visit to Lakeland Dairies, a major producer of quality dairy ingredients and food solutions using premium fresh milk sourced locally in Ireland. AFBR also has the opportunity to visit Cashel Blue, a reputable producer of blue cheese which had won Gold during the 2021-2022 World Cheese Awards held in Spain. We also had a short visit to Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority in Ireland, which is actively engaged in food research with dairy as one of the primary industry segments.
The media tour wrapped up with a visit to one of Tirlan’s production facility near Kilkenny City. Tirlan is a major dairy co-operative in Ireland processing more than 3.2 billion litres of milk and produces world-renown consumer brands like Avonmore, as well as foodservices brands like Truly Grass-Fed and CheddMax amongst others. We also stopover at Cakeface, a local bakery, which produces quality pastry products using Tirlan quality dairy ingredients.
The following are snapshots of our media tour identifying the major highlights and findings.
Bord Bia’s Origin Green programme ensures quality, sustainable dairy exports
Bord Bia is Ireland’s agency aimed with supporting the sustainable development of the country’s food and beverage industry. In 2012, it launched Origin Green, a national sustainability plan throughout the whole food chain, and also the first and only one in the world operating on a national level.
AFBR has the opportunity to meet Margaret Butler, Dairy Ingredients Manager from Bord Bia, whom has provided us with a good overview of Ireland’s dairy sector. ASEAN region, according to Ms Butler, is growing in importance for Irish dairy exports. Latest 2023 statistics shown that countries in ASEAN imported more than 80,000 metric tons of dairy products from Ireland (see Chart 1.0 below ), a small but a rapidly growing number. Overall, Asia contributed up to 12% of Irish total dairy exports while Europe remains as the most important export market (60%).
One distinct uniqueness of Irish dairy is the natural ‘grass-fed diet’ of its dairy cows which it believes led to the production of quality dairy ingredients and products, superior in both flavor and nutrient composition.
Currently, there are more than 16,000 dairy farms under the Origin Green sustainability programme ensuring strict regular audits, while assuring transparency for dairy customers and consumers. On average, more than 99% of Irish dairy exports are derived from Origin Green members..
Lakeland Dairies offers premium dairy sourcing for business owners in Asia
A visit to Lakeland Dairies helps us to gain a clearer perspective on Irish dairy processing. Lakeland is also an Irish-based dairy co-operative and is part of the Origin Green programme, processing more than 2 billion litres of quality milk annually from more than 3,200 family farms.
Its large processing plant at Bailieborough has the capacity to pump 320,000 litres of milk per hour, with an enormous storage capacity for raw (1.4 million litres) and pasteurized milk (2.9 million litres). It is also able to store up to 750 metric tons of cream.
Its processing plant for butter as an example, has well-planned hygienically separated areas for milk/cream intake
followed by a separation unit which later leads to the churning department. Its automated packing area offers bulk packing (25kg) as well as consumer pack sizes ranging from 227g to 500g. The production facility also employs the latest processing and packaging technology from Alpha Laval and GEA to ensure lesser downtime and better consistency in production.
Lakeland Dairies also has a separate Drying plant for production of powder ingredients like skim milk, whole- milk and fat-filled milk powders. The plant employs 4 milk evaporators with a combined capacity of up to 220,000 litres per hour. It also has 3 spray dryers with total drying capacity of 22 metric tons per hour. It offers various pack sizes from 12.5kg to 1,100kg.
Apart from actual on-site production, Lakeland also offers sophisticated pilot plant for collaborative innovation work with its customers.
Lakeland Dairies’ milk has already been processed into a range of dairy ingredients and food service products for its customers. As an example, Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s leading airline, is currently one of its institutional customers, using Lakeland Dairies’ UHT whole milk in dose packaging for its in-flight catering service to passengers.
Cashel Blue Cheese – offering blue cheese in delectable flavours acceptable to Asians
Cashel Blue is named after the historical St Patrick’s Rock of Cashel, and it is a craft, Irish farm made blue cheese.
An original recipe, Cashel Blue was created by Jane and Louis Grubb and today, 40 years on, the independently-owned business is ran by Jane and Louis’s daughter Sarah, and husband Sergio, who take the family tradition forward.
Made since 1984, the first cheeses were matured in the cellar under the family farmhouse. Today, all Cashel Blue is still made and matured on the family farm, but in a modern 2,000 sq.metre purpose built cheese dairy facility nestled in the lush green pastureland, beside the original farmhouse and it’s kitchen gardens.
AFBR team visit gained a real sense of the craft involved in making Cashel Blue. Milk travels a short distance from local farms, and is pasteurised but not standardised. Curds are cut by hand, using a cheese harp, and there is a strong sense of connection between the cheese maker and the curd as it changes through the seasons; richer milk in October will require more stirring to release the moisture than summer milk.
Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers respect tradition but recognise the value of a combined approach, between craft cheesemaking and modern systems. Cheese curds are filled into moulds, automatically, and turned over several days.
After a number of days, Cashel blue is salted in brine, a method which is less common in blue cheese-making but based on a family recipe. Cashel Blue is not a salty blue comparative to many stronger European blues. Following salting, each wheel of Cashel Blue is pierced; air passages allow the seasoning of penicillium roquefortii spores introduced to the milk to develop. The penicillium roquefortii (blue mould) will develop over a number of weeks as the cheese matures, in the modern maturing rooms recreating a cave like but in a hygienic high-grade environment which meets food safety standards. Once blue, each wheel is wrapped in Cashel Blue’s signature gold foil, and moved to the second stage of maturation for 2 to 4 months, undergoing regular tasting and grading for quality, led by a team under the supervision of owner Sarah Furno, Maitre Fromager.
Cashel Blue has an extremely positive reputation in Ireland, so much so that manufacturers of other products like snacks have collaborated with it to produce their own distinctive “Cashel Blue” flavours for their products.
A taste test done by AFBR during the visit showed that Cashel Blue Cheese indeed has a subtle and creamy flavour, as claimed on its packaging, unlike the strong flavour notes of conventional blue cheeses that you might find in market, making it extremely suitable for the Asian palate. According to Mr Louis Clifton Brown, Q.A and Environmental Manager of Cashel Blue, the company is ready to work with Asian food manufacturers and distributors to bring it’s specialty, premium blue cheese to the region.
Tirlan aims to increase its market presence for cheese, milk powder in Asia region
Our final but important stop ends with Tirlan, the biggest milk processor and dairy co-operative in Ireland which handles 3.2 billion litres of milk or 1/3 of the country’s overall milk capacity. Tirlan boasts of 11 sophisticated processing plants across the country with its Avonmore brand being one of the ‘most loved’ consumer brands for milk, butter and cream in the country.
According to June Dowling, Strategic Global Marketing & Brand Leader, Tirlan exported to more than 100 countries with 60% of its export for its consumer business coming from Asia. Dowling emphasized that Southeast Asia is its next growth engine and will surpass the MENA region in terms of market share in the near future.
Tirlan business is currently divided into Agribusiness, Consumer and Ingredients Divisions.
A presentation by Ms Gwen Gould, Senior Marketing Manager for Dairy Ingredients disclosed that Tirlan has strong focus in the production of cheddar cheese, which it has been producing for over 60 years. According to Gwen, “Cheese is the engine of the business – we manufacture 100,000 tonnes of cheddar cheese annually – 30% of our milk go to the creation of cheese products which also include other cheese products like Edam and Gouda amongst others. And with that we also derive a lot of byproducts that come out of milk/cheese production like whey and WPI (whey protein isolates) etc.”
Cheddar cheese is also a conventional cheese variant favored by many Asian consumers and consumed regularly during breakfast and other meal occasions.
Tirlan has already exported its cheeses to more than 36 countries, led by rapid global growth in demand for cheese solutions particularly in Asia.
Meanwhile, Tirlan’s business brand, Cheddmax also plays an increasingly vital role for the food services as its functional curds go into creating processed cheese used in burger cheese and on pizzas. Functional curds can be tailor-made to create over 27 different recipes or types of cheese from mild to medium to strong cheese, or in terms of texture or color, to cater to the differing needs of the customer markets. For example, in Japan, its customers don’t like brown topping pizzas they prefer the whiter versions, as such Tirlan formulated a different recipe of cheese for this market.
Another growth category for Tirlan in Southeast Asia is the affordable nutrition segment. This is supported by its annual production of up to 75,000 tonnes of fat-filled milk powder – a skimmed milk powder but added with vegetable fat – to make it more cost-effective for the developing markets in ASEAN. Gwen added that they are used to make yogurts as well as in condensed and UHT milk used with tea and coffee. It has a broad variety of applications from bakery to ice cream products.
Tirlan is set for further growth in Asia, although currently it is operating a small team in China and Japan, with a development chef stationed in Vietnam to collaborate with its customers. Its other important markets in ASEAN include Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. Ms Dowling emphasized that Tirlan’s focus currently is to build a chef network across the ASEAN region, and working closely with food services customers particularly within the premium bakery and beverage channels. It is also working with established distributors like GoodFood in Vietnam and Classic Fine Foods in Singapore to build and expand its portfolio which currently is driven by UHT cream in terms of profitability followed by cheddar cheese and butter.
Dowling highlighted the major growth factors in Asia which revolve around affordable nutrition, protein fortification, healthy indulgence, and healthy ageing and Tirlan is confident that its range of products and ingredients are able to fulfill these increasingly demanding needs. As an example, it recently launched Avonmore Fibre Plus Milk which contains added fibre and vitamins, to support stronger immune and digestive systems.
Tirlan current institutional customers include Starbucks, Emirates, Etihad, Saudi Arabia Airlines as well as numerous hotels and food services establishments.
While on our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Cakeface, a renowned local bakery which uses quality dairy ingredients from Tirlan like Avonmore cream, butter and milk. We had the opportunity to create Irish Scones at Cakeface bakery kitchen, at the same time attesting to the rich quality of pastry and bakery products made at Cakeface.
In short, the media visit to Ireland unveils the country’s unique dairy farming landscape. The country offers quality dairy products, all thanks to its ‘grass-fed’ free grazing cows coupled with good water and soil conditions which ensure lush pastures of up to 300 days a year. Not only that, dairy products made from these animals had higher level of nutritional contents, good fats and lower cholesterol, not to mention more flavorful and palatable to the consumer taste buds.
Customers in Asia who work with Irish dairy players could also capitalize on the lower CO2 emission and promote their clean label claims while at the same time support their sustainability goals. These attributes are of growing priorities as we approach a future global population of close to 10 billion by 2050
