Leprino Foods to construct dairy plant on the mainland

United States-based Leprino Foods, one of the world's largest cheese producers, plans to build a mainland production plant as more Chinese consumers develop a taste for dairy products.

The government of Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, has given the company permission to build a cheese facility, Xinhua reported.

No investment amount was given.

Leprino Foods president Wesley Allen was reported by the agency as saying that the mainland cheese market offered great growth potential.

Leprino Foods, the world's largest producer of mozzarella, plans to develop a plant that would produce 60,000 tonnes of 'high-quality' cheese annually, the agency said.

Leprino's move comes as foreign companies step up investment in China's large but under-developed dairy industry.

Foreign dairy companies have been investing in China in the past two decades. Nestle of Switzerland was one of the earliest to explore the mainland market.