This section contains:


Camels

yWorld.Domain.Item.Text

Products: Meat, leather, wool, oil, and milk

Synopsis – Australian Industry


Year

Gross value of Prod’n
$ ‘000

Exports
$ ‘000

Imports
$ ‘000

2006-2007

683

338

0

 

The Australian camel industry is largely based on the harvesting of feral dromedary camels in the arid central regions of Australia for live export.  Australia’s feral camel population was believed to be as large as 1 million in 2007 and growing at a rate of more than 10 per cent a year. Roughly 50 per cent of feral camels are located in Western Australia, 25 per cent in the Northern Territory and most of the remainder in western Queensland and northern South Australia.  Income from tourism is also important to the industry. Although slaughter of camels for human consumption commenced at Alice Springs in the 1980s and camel meat was supplied through supermarket chains in Australia in the late 1990s, there does not appear to have been significant production of camel meat in recent years.

Per the Non-indigenous Animals Act 1987, licenses are required in NSW to keep camels and buffalo. It is illegal to be in possession of them in NSW without a licence. Each jurisdiction in Australia should be checked for license requirements before acquiring animals. There is a link below with more information on NSW.

Background

The two species of camel are the dromedary or Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) with a single hump and the Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) with two humps. Camels are used in many parts of the world, mainly as a beast of burden and as a source of milk and dung. They provide meat for human consumption and pet food, as well as leather, camel wool and camel oil. There is also a camel racing industry.

There is a significant world trade in live camels but only a small recorded trade in camel meat of around 250 tonnes a year. In the three years to 2005, around 54 000 camels were traded each year at a value of US$16 million with Egypt importing nearly three quarters of this number, Oman (8 per cent), Qatar (6 per cent), Iran (5 per cent) and Indonesia (4 per cent).  The main suppliers of live camels to the world trade are Sudan (61 per cent in the three years to 2005), Djibouti (14 per cent) and Niger (9 per cent).

In the four years to 2006-07, shipments from Australia of live camels were made to Malaysia (68 per cent of total), and Brunei (32 per cent). Prior to 2003, there were also exports of live camels to Saudi Arabia.

Links