Gozitan herdsmen will still be able to take their milk to the Malta Dairy Products (MDP) plant in Gozo after this is closed down at the end of February, a statement on behalf of the MDP said.

Although a number of activities will be transferred from the Gozo plant to the dairy in Malta, milk intake and the laboratory services will still be carried out in Gozo.

Employees at the Gozo plant whose job is not linked to the milk intake or laboratory services will start to report to work at the Malta plant after the Gozitan one is closed down.

A spokesman for the MDP said the company had invested heavily in the Malta plant and it therefore made sense to move operations there. Ricotta, gbejniet (cheeselets) and mozzarella were produced in the Gozo plant but the production of ricotta had already been transferred to Malta, the spokesman said.

The MDP said that over the past two years the company had invested in a restructuring process to modernise the Malta plant and improve the quality of its products to be able to compete in a liberalised market. This investment, it said, amounted to more than Lm2.5 million.

The restructuring exercise includes the centralisation of the production under one roof in order to enhance efficiency and quality control over the range of products.

"This investment and restructuring are extremely important for the industry, the consumers and the workers themselves," the statement said.