Camel is the new Cow? Can camel milk be the next dairy alternative
The Amul getting into the camel milk industry has highlighted the camel milk and its different products making it a whole new segment while there are other players too. People are getting to know about the medicinal value of camel milk for a particular segment of consumers.
It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but definitely it’s gaining the taste. We are talking about camel milk which in past few years has emerged as super food with medicinal benefits among certain consumer groups. In India, nomadic people are using it for centuries and now seeing the opportunities in the dairy market in turn rising the pastoralist’s hopes.
Camel milk comes under premium category, a bit expensive too; thanks to its therapeutic abilities you can say it could be an answer to many lifestyle diseases. In past, many medical studies and journal have proved camel milk properties and its nutritional values. According to a journal it is three times richer in vitamin C and rich in different minerals such as Iron, Copper, sodium etc and low in lactose as compared to the cattle milk. A science journal too mentioned camel milk consumption as defining factor of healthy glucose level in blood of camel herders Raica Community from Northwest India, comparing to non camel milk drinkers. It is effective in treating diabetes, other that it is also known to be effective in autism, arthritis, lactose intolerance as it is protein and mineral rich.
NRCC also conducted research in 2016-17 to see the effect of camel milk therapy on 108 autistic and children with special needs. An overall 30.22 per cent improvement from pre to post-treatment score in all the children was observed. While, children having pre-treatment scores up to 75 showed improvement of 43-58 per cent and children having pre- treatment score of 90 had shown improvement of up to 34 per cent.
It’s becoming popular
Though rural India was not new to camel milk, urbanites are also now warming up to the usage of camel milk. A Ghaziabad resident Mudit Bedi is one such consumer who is buying milk offline on call from Aadvik Foods. At first he was not so sure giving it to her diabetic mother, but his relatives assured him after seeing the positives outcomes on their type II diabetic child. He told us on call, “My mother is diabetic from past 18 years, and her glucose levels are almost high every week thus she was having health complications. But after starting consuming camel milk from Aadvik Foods her levels are getting on track. It’s quite effective”.
Consumers like Bedi are getting to know about it from various channels and awareness is spreading too, resulting in a creation of a niche market catering across country. Just merely searching camel milk on net, we also found e-commerce platforms like amazon or Indiamart selling camel milk in various forms. According to data from National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC), Bikaner, the sale of raw camel milk, which was 5,088 litres in the year 2013-14 recorded 79.32 percent rise in 2017-18 with sale of 9,124 litres which shows public is starting to accept unconventional methods too for getting healthy. Director of National Research Centre on Camel (NRCC) Dr NV Patil says, "Unlike cow and goat milk, camel milk has a different taste, which most of the people use for health benefits. With ample number of researches proving benefits of camel milk in health disorders, a rise in its sale has been witnessed over the past few years,". Little earlier at the end of 2018 in November, Prime Minister Narenda Modi has mentioned camel milk’s medicinal benefits in public event of Gujarat co-operative Milk Marketing Federation.
Camel Milk in Indian Market
India is a late entrant in the market if compared globally; it was only in February 2017 when Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) ruled out the standards of selling camel milk commercially. Beforehand, several entrepreneurs have forayed into the camel milk market seeing the opportunities at a very small level. One such startup based out of Bikaner—Aadvik Foods, is doing really well on the blocks. Established in 2015 it is the first one to launch the camel milk powder into the market. The company already has its line of raw milk, processed milk, milk powder, chocolates and skin care products on the shop counters.
Shrey Kumar, co-founder of Aadvik Foods claims to have largest share in the Indian market till now as they were first to start procuring camel milk from herders from Gujarat and Rajasthan. “We are getting daily at least 250 calls per day across the country plus we are mostly focused on online sales. As people are getting to know about pros of the camel milk, demands are rising.” He says. Recently, Amul also forayed into the market of camel milk particularly in Kutch, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar of Gujarat. The milk will be sourced from camel herders from Kutch and will be sold at ?100 per litre. Asking upon whether or not entering of giant player Amul will affect Aadvik Kumar told us, “It is soon to comment on this, but it can be an advantage to us also as it’s a niche market and no other big players are into it. We have been into the business and creating an awareness since two years. Now Amul coming into the scene will create a bigger platform and awareness among consumers. So its entry is definitely going to help us creating a market and pastoralists.”
Kumar is optimistic with entry of Amul in the market. He expects that its entry will make the prices lower and camel milk will be more affordable to consumers. As the new entrant milk giant will make sure to go aggressively in the market with its camel milk product, and have some plans to procure milk from Rajasthan too in the pipeline. “The idea behind launching in within three cities that to be only in Gujarat is due to the fact that Kutch is the hub of camels and the supply depends on the quantity of milk procured. The animal is always on migration unlike other cattles, now as we have started cracking the field in future the plan is to make them at one place to procure milk regularly and then we will expand.” Rupinder Singh Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation told us on call. He mentioned that the challenge with camel milk is that it has a low shelf life which can be a problem for small players and Amul’s strategy right now is to process, pack and sell locally within 100 km to 150 km to maintain its freshness and nutrition value and brands credibility and to grab larger share in the market gradually.
Why Camels are new Cow
A sharp decline in camel’s population is the big reason of booming of new market segment in the dairy business. A 1997 survey puts out the info about the camel population in Rajasthan was nearly at 700,000. In 2003, a sharp decline of 23 per cent was noted in the population, camel remained 4,98,000. In 2007 in last camel census, another decline of 18 per cent was noted number came down to 4,21,836. While according to NRCC last count of camel in India is 5,17,000. They also stated that Mewari breed is an endangered species with around 8,800 camels left—the species is good in milk production with an average of 7 to 8 litres per day as compared to other breeds. In 2014, the Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan (a NGO in Rajasthan that promotes camels and their produce) declared that the camel population had fallen from 4 lakh to 2 lakh in the state and it was imperative for the milk be legally sold.
The stats that came out made philanthropists and camel breeders association concerned on camel conservation. Ramesh Bhatti, Programme Director & Team Leader, Centre for Pastoralism Unit of Sahjeevan (A non-profit organisation based in Bhuj working in the field since many years) talks about us on the issue. “As camel population was on decline, it was thought that best way to stop the decline will be to increase the income of camel herders thus the legal commercialization of camel milk was the only way.” Thus camel milk industry gained momentum he says.
Sahjeevan is now a part of supply chain and is making a way for camel herders to be economically sound. The non-profit collects camel milk from camel herders of Kutch and in turn co-operatives and private companies like Aadvik procures the raw milk from them. The bulk of which goes to Amul via Sarhad Dairy co-operative, a member of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) and the rest of milk goes to Aadvik Foods. Bhatti told us, “Currently around 1000 camel herders are associated with us. The milk we procure goes to Amul and Aadvik, latter gets 400 litre per day from Bhuj and Sarhad dairy procures 2000 litre per day.”
Another dairy based out of Pali district of Rajasthan Kumbhalgarh Camel Dairy sells camel milk on call. It’s Director, Hanuwant Singh Rathore says camel milk market needs to invest on creating awareness among consumers, “Demand is gradually rising, though it need much publicity to create awareness among consumers. We are selling it at ?300 per litre, while camel herders are getting ?60 to ?70 per litre price.” The dairy is associated with an NGO group Lokhit Pashu Palak Sansthan in Rajasthan and now has started supplying milk all over India. It is also clear that camel herders has sense of awareness among them and are really positive about the segment. “The camel herders who have taken other professions are coming back to pastoralism. They are buying new camels and engaging with camel market and they are getting good prices monthly earning about ?18,000 to ?20,000 per month.” Says Bhatti. Sahjeevan recently has helped around 25 new herders who were interested in re-engaging in pastoralism, in turn the exercise is also an initiative towards conserving camels. Sodhi too believes that the camel milk market is paving the camel breeders and herders an opportunity to get back to their roots, “With Amul coming in to the picture, now at least they know a market is there which can give them ample opportunities.” According to him in future camel milk market is going to grow and it will give pastoralists huge benefits in terms of cash flow.
Government is paying attention
A time was there when camel farmers were finding the profession unprofitable, giving their camels to slaughterhouses for meat or other by products or sell their animals and most of them turned away from the job. This resulted in mass decline of camel population in Thar Desert. To conserve the species, Rajasthan made the animal as the state animal in 2014 and passed a bill called the Rajasthan Camel (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Bill in 2015. The bill makes the killing a criminal offence which can be punishable upto 5 years jail, and keep a check on animal dwindling population. But, the bill didn’t success in its intent because many were not able to understand it properly due to illiteracy and camel farmers were losing interest. To revive next step that Rajasthan government took was in 2016, when it declared to provide a hefty sum of 10,000 to camel breeders on the birth of each calf under Ushtra Vikas Yojana. This cash incentive initiative is going fine among farmers and people are also now taking interest. One such farmer in Rajasthan got incentive of ? 10,000 one time, he told us on request of anonymity, “Yes, people are interested in getting cash incentives and thus are breeding camels. I got prize one time, now I am waiting for the second installment. I hope I will get it soon.”
In addition to above initiatives Raje government in the state budget 2018-2019 announced to set up a mini dairy plant for processing and distributing camel milk. Moreover, it was also planned to sell on Saras Dairies of Rajasthan co-operative Dairy Federation all over the state. The federation also has some of the schemes for milk producer in the state to help them at various levels.
Gujarat government on the other hand has roped in a local union of camel breeders known as Kutch Unt Uchherak Maldhari Sangthan (KUUMS) to form a network of milk collection while Sahjeevan, a non-profit helps mobilize the camel breeders and create awareness. Also GCMMF will now market the camel milk products aggressively too. Sodhi says, “The biggest challenge in the market is the procurement and increase in the production. Next we need to focus on is the price that farmer is getting. The resolution of these issues will give major boost to camel milk industry.”