OREANDA-NEWS. February 26, 2009. Four large whey processing centres will be constructed in Belarus by the end of 2010, said Deputy Director of the Institute for Meat and Dairy Industry affiliated with the Research and Practical Centre for Foodstuffs of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB).

The centres will be set up at the Slutsk cheese-making plant (Minsk oblast), Ivanovo branch of Bereza cheese-making plant (Brest oblast), Senno branch of Orsha dairy plant (Vitebsk oblast) and Kalinkovichi milk substitute plant (Gomel oblast).

Condensed whey will be delivered to the centres from other dairy plants. It will be processed into powder and packed into different packages. By 2010, the dried whey production will be increased manifold up to 80,000 tonnes.

At present, the construction of a whey processing shop floor is in full swing at the Kalinkovichi milk substitute plant: the supplier of the equipment has been determined; the design work has already started. The plant will produce fat whey concentrate which is component of whole milk substitute used for animal breeding. This concentrate used to be imported in Belarus. Whole milk will be further processed and used in the manufacture of other kinds of products.

Apart from that, dried whey will be turned out here. These capacities can be used as reserve ones in case the market conditions will change. The plant can produce whole dry milk and non-fat dry milk.

The projects will pay back in seven years. The equipment will not require major upgrades within 20-25 years. The milk substituting equipment for the Kalinkovichi plant will cost ?23 million. Investments will be channelled into construction works.

The Slutsk cheese-making plant will purchase similar equipment to make dried whey and dried whole and non-fat milk and whey concentrate.

The Bereza cheese-making plant will manufacture dried whey, whey protein concentrate for baby food and sports diet. The plant is set to start the manufacture of lactose and dried permeate.

More than thirty plants will set up whey concentration shops. For example, the Grodno oblast will implement an investment project at the Lida concentrated-milk factory to process 100,000 tonnes of whey a year. The Berezino dairy in the Minsk oblast intends to commission a facility with the capacity of 70,000 tonnes a year. The same shops will be launched in Verkhnedvinsk, Kletsk, Kopyl.

All these investment facilities have been included in the whey processing programme designed to run until 2010. The total funding of the programme will amount to USD 90 million.