Valio invests €30M in automation for Finland cheese maturation warehouse 

Valio is investing €30 million (US$33 million) in a new cheese maturation warehouse to be built at its Joensuu production plant in Finland. The investment will cover the automation of the plant’s operations and will be completed in 2027.

The old maturation warehouse will be renovated to accommodate the production lines being relocated from Valio’s Vantaa production plant. Cheese slicing and grating, as well as processed cheese production, will be relocated from Vantaa to Joensuu. The entire cheese production process will be brought under one roof at the Joensuu plant. Milk collected from 

Valio farms is pasteurized to make cheese, which is then salted and finally ripened in the warehouse. After maturing, the cheese moves to further processing, i.e. for block packaging, slicing or grating. In the future, processed cheese will also be produced at the plant. The new maturation warehouse is highly automated, which brings efficiency and savings to the production plant’s operations. In cheese production, the aim is to make the best possible use of all possible side streams.

“The expansion will create a total of about one hundred new jobs at the Joensuu production plant within a couple of years. New positions will be created as the new production lines and facilities are gradually taken into use. At this stage, we have already recruited 15 new employees, and a few dozen more positions will become available on the slicing lines later this year. Valio employees from the Vantaa plant have also transferred to positions in Joensuu,” says Joensuu plant director Petri Liukka.

Most of Finland’s dairy farms are located in an area stretching from Ostrobothnia to eastern Finland. The Joensuu production plant receives milk from 800 dairy farms located mainly in North Karelia, and it produces one-third of all Valio cheeses. The plant’s annual production volume is approximately 25 million kilos of cheese blocks, consumer packaged cheeses, cream cheeses, and milk powders. 

The main products of the Joensuu plant are Valio Polar cheeses, Valio Salaneuvos cheeses, and Valio Viola cream cheeses. In the future, processed cheeses, such as the iconic Valio Koskenlaskija, Valio Aamupala, Valio Olympia, and Valio Kippari slices and grated cheese, will be produced at the Joensuu plant. Approximately 20% of the products made at the Joensuu production plant are exported.