FrieslandCampina invests €90 million to capitalise on rising protein demand

FrieslandCampina will invest more than €90 million over the next three years in modernizing the production sites in Bedum, Veghel and Workum. At these locations, among other things, high-quality whey proteins are produced, for which demand is strongly rising. The investment is being made by FrieslandCampina Ingredients, the business division that in recent years has been a real cash cow for the dairy cooperative and made a major contribution to overall profitability. In addition to modernization, FrieslandCampina also wants to scale up production, without the dairy cooperative giving concrete details about volumes. A spokesperson does say that it concerns a 'substantial scaling up' of the production capacity. FrieslandCampina is seeing strong demand for whey proteins for sports nutrition, lifestyle nutrition and specialized medical applications. As a major player in cheese, FrieslandCampina automatically also produces a lot of whey. The dairy cooperative aims to be able to process all liquid whey in-house in the future. High prices The prices of whey proteins have recently taken off. The price for regular whey powder food has risen to more than €1,700 per ton, the highest level so far. Since the turn of the year, prices have risen by more than 50%. Highly concentrated products, such as whey protein concentrates of up to around 90% protein, have risen in a year to around €20,000 per ton, according to data from DCA Market Intelligence. The aim is to scale up production of advanced protein products, such as WPC80, instant whey proteins and FrieslandCampina's specialty product Nutri WheyTM ProHeat, a microparticulated whey. These ingredients are used by food producers, among other things, in high-protein drinks, bars and yogurt. Anne Peter Lindeboom, president of FrieslandCampina Ingredients, says in a press release: Global demand for advanced protein solutions is growing rapidly. With this program, we are taking the next step to be leading in high-quality proteins. FrieslandCampina has been investing heavily in the protein portfolio in recent years. At the end of 2024, the expansion of the whey production site in Workum was already announced, involving an investment of €30 million. The newly announced investment comes on top of that. In addition, FrieslandCampina acquired Wisconsin Whey Protein in the United States last year, a producer of high-quality proteins.