Yoghurt maker Fage has plans to build a dairy factory in Hoogeveen

Fage International still has plans to build a dairy factory in Hoogeveen, but a final decision on the location has not yet been made. Meanwhile, the design of the intended factory is continuously being adjusted. This does not appear from information provided by Fage itself, but from information from the province of Drenthe. It recently gave answer to questions from the regional Party for the Animals. According to the province, Fage has made important adjustments to the original design, which means that water consumption now hardly seems to be a problem. Whereas the original water consumption was estimated at 2.5 million liters per day, this has now been reduced to 250,000 liters, because Fage wants to focus heavily on water reuse. The idea remains that the factory will be almost fully electric. According to the province, that will not be a problem, because by the time the factory has to be ready, sufficient grid capacity will also have been installed. Where Fage wants to source the milk remains a question. The company says it would prefer to collect it locally, but that is not a strict requirement. The province also does not set local supply as a requirement for a permit. The province of Drenthe continues to assess Fage's arrival in Hoogeveen as positive. Such a company would create additional employment and also indirectly ensure extra economic activity in the region. The factory would be good for 250 full time jobs. Available nitrogen space for a required nature permit does not seem to be the problem, because according to the province this had already been arranged before December 2024 (when internal balancing was rejected), as well as for fertilized agricultural land (whose fertilization can be stopped as a compensation measure). Fage continues to perform well with Greek yogurt, especially in the United Kingdom, Italy and further away, in the United States. The company says it is also benefiting from the GLP-1 trend (weight loss injections) and is responding to it with a broad range of protein rich products. In its home country Greece, the company recently also received a fine of more than €1.75 million. According to the Greek competition authority, the company had applied a higher profit margin on its yogurts than is allowed in Greece. Another food producer was also fined, but in that case for unlawfully putting pressure on a debtor.