Kalona, IA – Kalona Creamery, a member of the Open Gates Business Development Corporation family, recently released an update on the status of cheese curd production at their facility located on Hwy 1, just outside of Kalona, IA.
Due to challenges in the organic milk industry, Open Gates Group, has slowed down their cheese curd production plans for 2017. Kalona Creamery Shop & Deli opened in January 2017 and the tentative plan had been to begin cheese curd production on-site this fall.
Mindy Seiffert, Director for Open Gates Group, says, “The last 12-18 months has been an unprecedented time in the organic dairy industry, which a number of our entities are involved in. From the beginning, our desire has been to cash flow the renovations at Kalona Creamery. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to slow down our plans for cheese curd production.”
Open Gates Group indicates that there is currently more organic milk available than what is being consumed in the marketplace. Additionally, the retail landscape is changing and alternative dairy is getting more shelf space. These factors have impacted the company’s flagship brand, Kalona SuperNaturalTM.
The company plans to evaluate the possibility of moving forward with cheese curd production on a monthly basis. Bill Evans, Open Gates Group CEO, adds, “We appreciate the support we have received from the community and Kalona Creamery Shop & Deli customers. Our goal is to make sure that we are a sustainable and long term business in this community.”
Visit www.kalonacreamery.com for more information.
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Kalona Creamery, a member of the Open Gates Business Development Corporation, is based in Kalona, Iowa, a small farming community in the heartland of America.
Open Gates Business Development Corporation, known as Open Gates Group, is a family of eight companies based in the rural Kalona area. Companies include Kalona Creamery, Kalona Organics®, Kalona Farms, Farmers Creamery, Awesome Refrigerated Transit of Iowa, Awesome Logistics, Frytown Distribution and Provision Ingredients.
Source: Kalona Creamery