Glanbia has exited its consumer dairy products joint venture in Nigeria to reinvest in its core areas of performance nutrition and ingredients.

Enda Kenny has described 2015 as “the year of rural recovery for Ireland” because of the imminent removal of the “straitjacket” of milk quotas and the development of initiatives such as a major new dairy processing plant officially opened yesterday by Glanbia Ingredients.

YESTERDAY’S opening of the Glanbia Ingredients Ireland’s €235m dairy facility in Belview, Co Kilkenny, is as resounding a vote of confidence in this society and economy as has been seen in decades.

Glanbia Ingredients Ireland has substantially increased its cash payment to Wexford Creamery members from €3.7m to €10m, in a move that has quelled disquiet among milk suppliers.

GLANBIA Ingredients Ballyragget, producer of Kilmeaden and Avonmore cheese, has retained the Fayrefield Trophy for the third year in a row for best international cheddar at the Nantwich International Cheese Show in Britain.

WEST Cork native John Harnedy, who runs Glanbia’s facility in Virginia, Co Cavan, is bringing the curtain down on 41 years of service with the company — and is retiring on the precise date he joined the organisation, on March 31.

THE recently-published Food Harvest 2020 report heralds an exciting phase in the evolution and growth of the Irish dairy industry.

THE number of applicants for the Dairy Business degree programme, run by University College Dublin and Teagasc, has almost doubled this year, it was disclosed yesterday.

THE keynote address at the Agricultural Science Association’s annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, on September 10 will be given by George Lyon.

KERRY pride, dented at the county footballers being knocked out of the All-Ireland title race on Saturday, has been partially restored.

MORE than 20 top holstein friesians from all over Ireland are expected to be shortlisted to compete for the Baileys Irish Champion Cow title at Virginia Show in Co Cavan on July 31.

IRISH farmers and food companies received more than €1.9 billion in subsidies from the European Union last year with the biggest recipient, the Irish Dairy Board co-op, receiving almost €8 million.

GLANBIA Ingredients Ireland, with operations at Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny, and Virginia, Co Cavan, is being hailed as a leader in energy efficiency.

PART of the success achieved by one of the country’s leading export companies, Baileys, has been attributed to the quality cream produced by 40,000 dairy cows on 1,500 accredited Irish farms.

TEN of Ireland’s leading companies have committed themselves to conserving energy and tackle high costs under a major new scheme.

Ten of Ireland’s leading companies today committed themselves to conserve energy and tackle high costs under a major new scheme.