Fragility and challenges in the development of the camel milk sector worldwide

Session 14- Théâtre 9

International audience

إنجليزي. In less than 30 years, camel milk has evolved from a “gift economy” to a “market economy” in most camelcountries. This important change contributed to the development of the camel milk production worldwide whichhas been multiplied by 9 since 1961 vs 2.3 for cow. However, with an estimated production of 4.12 million tonsin 2022 (under-estimated), camel milk is representing 0.44% of the milk consumed worldwide (0.18% in 1961).Nowadays, on average 21.3 % of the camels are lactating (cows :18%). Moreover, the main part of the camel milkis still self-consumed by pastoralists: for example, 75% in Africa, 60% in Saudi Arabia. The introduction of camelmilk into market is partly linked to climatic changes, to the necessity to provide milk in large cities from MiddleEast or Africa, and to the “health effect” attributed to this product. The consequences for the camel milk commoditychannel were the trend to the intensification and “periurbanization” of the dairy camel farming systems,the development of milk processing for making long shelf-life products (as fermented, pasteurized or cheese) andthe conquest of international market with the emergence of camel milk powder value chain. The developmentof a camel milk sector in western countries (USA, Australia, and Western Europe) has also to be emphasized.However, this development is fragile due to different factors: (i) the price differential with cow milk; (ii) the lowmilk productivity of camel; (iii) the weak structure of the commodity channels; (iv) the distance of productionzones from consumption basin in many countries. Despite this fragility, a growth of the camel milk sector by 6-8%annually is expected for the next decennia.