Amul, which collects, processes, packages and markets buffalo and cow milk, will now do an encore with camel milk that is low on fat content and seen as curing lifestyle diseases. India’s best known milk and dairying products brand will commence marketing camel milk from August 15.

Camel milk will be collected and processed by the Kutch District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as Sarhad Dairy, and marketed by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Valamjibhai Humbal, President of the Kutch union and a Director at the State milk marketing body, told Business Line on Wednesday.

“We have discussed the camel milk issue with Amul in detail,” he said. Sarhad Dairy is a member of the State milk marketing body.

Humbal said camel milk is rich in Vitamic-C that can help patients suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis, gastric complications and even cancer. The announcement on the sale of camel milk was made at the third annual general meeting of Kutch Unt Uchherak Maldhari Sangathan, an association of camel breeders in the arid district.

He said that Kutch has nearly 12,000 camels, half of which are milch animals. Nearly 3,000 she-camels yield five to six litres of milk daily. “Since camels are migratory cattle, we cannot run after them to collect milk. So we have roped in an NGO, Sahjeevan, to collect the milk and deliver at our village-level societies that would transport these to our bulk milk cooling facilities.”

The facilities will cool milk at three to four degrees Celsius before moving it to a processing plant near Bhuj.

Humbal said that Sarhad Dairy would initially collect and process about 1,000-1,500 litres of camel milk daily. Gradually, depending on the demand, the collection and processing would be increased as Kutch can produce up to 18,000 litres of milk a day.

Asked about marketing of the product, Humbal said that unlike cow and buffalo milk, camel milk is expected to be used by a niche segment, mainly patients. “We will be carry out advertising, publicity and marketing campaigns along with Amul for this product as well.”

At present, camel milk is priced at Rs 12-15 a litre that is expected to increase to Rs 40 after processing to increase its shelf-life. Unprocessed camel milk has a shelf-life of only 4-5 hours. “We will also take a decision on the pricing issue at next week’s meeting,” he said.

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