Glanbia Foods said recently that it will begin producing organic cheeses, and it expects to do so in a big way—producing eight to 10 million pounds of organic cheddar, colby and Monterey Jack cheeses over the next 12 months.

“We have been tracking the organic market for a number of years and we could see that there will be about a 20% annual growth in the organic cheese market,” said Jeff Williams, CEO of Glanbia Foods. “Organic cheese production is usually isolated to smaller businesses, so we think that our size can bring resources such as quality control and assurance to the table, which is something that consumers are wanting more of.”

Glanbia’s size will also give it a competitive advantage by providing it with the ability to bring costs and prices down in a market that is dominated by smaller and more costly producers of organic cheese.

The company plans to produce its organic cheeses during the first hours of operation each day—when the facilities have been cleaned to meet organic food requirements—and then transition back to conventional cheese production later in the day.