Getting to Know Camel Milk - interview Mutasher Awad Al Badry

Camel milk has been touted to be more nutritious than cow's milk. Already known for its "Camelicious" brand of milk and chocolates, EICMP will introduce other products such as cheese. It has extensive camel farming and herding as well as mechanised processes and boasts state-of-the-art facilities on a 1.5 million-square-metre property. Mutasher Awad Al Badry, deputy general manager at EICMP shared his insights on the dairy farm, its inception and its growth prospects, with Food Manufacturing Journal –Middle East & Africa.

Mutasher Awad Al Badry, Deputy General Manager

How did the company get into the camel milk business?
The idea of a camel-milking facility originated at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) in Dubai over 25 years ago. Research commenced on a small number of camels that were raised there with the specific aim of obtaining scientific proof of the incredible health benefits of the traditional Bedouin staple that is camel milk. The goal was to later introduce camel milk to the market where it would be accessible to a large number of consumers and not limited to the few camel herders in the country. Work commenced on creating Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products (EICMP) in 2003, following the completion of the research. By 2006, the milk production facility was completed and camel milk products hit the market in August of the same year.

The company owns the world's largest camel milking plant. How big is the farm and processing facility?
The EICMP facility is housed within the farm near Dubai Al-Ain road exit 26 towards Um Nahad, and is on a total area of one-and-a-half million square metres. It's the world's first and largest sophisticated camel milking plant, incorporating state-of-the-art technology and camel research. Our farm currently houses a herd of about 3,000 happy and healthy camels that produce life-enriching "Camelicious" camel milk. Plans and efforts are ongoing to increase our herd to meet the market demand.

Is there any di f ference in the way EICMP extracts and processes the camel milk from traditional methods for dairy cows, for instance?
Specially designed equipment for milking camels has been developed to optimise milk production and increase the comfort of the camels during the procedure.  Camels are very different from cows, and so is their milk. We have had to customise all our equipment, from milking equipment-because camels have a different anatomy from cows-to pasteurisation and powdering equipment because camel milk loses much of its nutritional value if heated to temperatures of over 78 degrees Celsius.

How is the health of the animal maintained and monitored?
World-class veterinarians and animal care experts from around the globe, as well as local breeders and handlers with intuitive and experiential knowledge of camels-plus our state-of-the-art facilities-ensure that our Camelicious camels are in the best possible shape. And whilst we treat these animals as our companions and friends, we also make sure we follow international standards and regulations such as ISO 22000 and HACCP. The result is that the European Union has preliminarily approved our products. EU official approval is expected before the end of the current year, whilst the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is calling for the milk to be available in western markets.

How different is camel milk from other kinds of milk?
The benefits of camel milk are numerous. The milk is rich in vitamins, naturally low in fat, rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and has three times as much vitamin C as cow's milk. It has been proven to be the closest to mother's milk in terms of compositiAir Jordan I Mid