Haramaya Camel Dairy

project summary

Camels are popular domestic animals in arid and semiarid regions of Africa and the Middle East. Camels are held mainly as dairy animals, but also for the meat and for transportation. The largest camel population is found in East Africa, around the Horn of Africa in Somalia, Sudan, and Ethiopia. The camels in Ethiopia amounts to 2.5 millions.
Camel milk is mainly consumed raw in the local area without the use of modern distribution channels. The development of a dairy industry has been limited by the fact that neither butter nor cheese could be manufactured from camel’s milk, limiting the product to be liquid milk. Through the use of modern biotechnology the conditions have now fundamentally changed, as camel chymosin is now commercially available as a dairy enzyme. Through this project we will conduct the research needed to create the foundation for product development of camel dairy products.
The research will be conducted in Denmark and Ethiopia. We will build the scientific and educational competencies at Haramaya University where also the dairy pilot plant will be modified to allow processing of camel’s milk. In the course of the project we expect to educate two scientists to the level of Ph D as well as ten M Sc in Dairy Technology.