Milk quota attracts large investment

The milk quota Romania has negotiated with the EU of 3 billion litres a year, combined with the prospects for growth on the market, is attracting massive investment to the milk products market. Industry sources say that officials from German company Meggle, an important European player, are currently visiting Romania with a view to buying a local company. The same sources say French company Lactalis has been in talks for over a month for the takeover of Prodlacta Brasov, one of the medium-sized players still not to have been sold to any of the multinationals operating in Romania. Israeli company Tnuva recently acquired 20 hectares of land in Popesti Leordeni, close to Bucharest, and has announced plans to invest 50 million dollars (41 million euros). Valeriu Steriu, the chairman of the Association of Milk Industry Employers of Romania (APRIL), an organisation that brings together the most important players on dairy products market, says the industry will witness more intense concentration in the future. a??Unlike the meat market, for example, where there are very few multinationals -like Campofrio and Smithfield, and the recent addition, Reinert – the milk products industry is more challenging from two standpoints: milk collection and milk market. After the arrival of the first big European names, Danone and Hochland, two or three other names will be watching the Romanian market more closely, and not just for production reasons, but also in terms of participating in a very attractive post-accession production quota, which would even allow them to export,a?? he said. ZF