Royal FrieslandCampina and DMK Group (DMK) have signed a contract manufacturing agreement for the production of mozzarella cheese.

FrieslandCampina will bring in milk supplied by its members, know-how and recipes, and will market the mozzarella cheese.

DMK will provide in the production facilities and expertise. For this purpose, it will further modernise and expand the Georgsmarienhütte location in Germany to facilitate optimal mozzarella production for FrieslandCampina.

Hans Meeuwis, President of FrieslandCampina Dairy Essentials, said: “We have a strong portfolio in cheese and want to grow further in cheese types such as mozzarella.

“The cooperation with DMK fits in well with our strategy to further expand our process capacity through selecive partnerships, besides own network investments.

“The co-manufacturing agreement will allow us to expand our portfolio in, among others mozzarella, to drive value with our members’ milk and to improve the service to our customers.”

Ingo Müller, CEO of DMK Group, added: “We annually process about 8 billion kilos of milk. The cooperation with FrieslandCampina is part of our raw milk plan.

“In the future, our raw milk will come from several sources. First and foremost, we process our members’ milk and market our products.

“Secondly, we process milk within the scope of plant contract manufacturing agreement, like the agreement we have entered into with FrieslandCampina. In this way we will obtain a position in which we can make maximum use of our plant structure.”

The agreement will become effective in 2019.