White ranking: Top 20 milk processing plants

Greek-held Olympus, French-held Danone and Romanian-held Albalact are the owners of the top three milk processing facilities in Romania. They account for around 25% of the overall capacity of the 100 or so facilities operating on the Romanian market.

The ranking put together based on production capacity of the facilities is somewhat different from the ranking by turnover of companies operating in the dairy industry.

The Greek at Olympus have the biggest processing facility, according to data sent by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the company's turnover amounting to around 12.4 million euros in 2009, while Danone posted over 100 million euros in turnover in the same year with a lower processing capacity.

"The capacity of processing facilities also varies depending on the products made there. For instance, to produce various types of cheese, one uses more milk than if the facility specialises in yoghurts. In turn, the type of product made in the facility has an impact on revenues because we are talking about different sale prices," explain representatives of Danone Romania, the biggest player in the dairy industry, referring to results reported in 2009.

The list of the top 20 milk processing facilities also includes Friesland (SCIL Mureş), Hochland Romania, Dorna Lactate and Tnuva.