MOGADISHU: Malaysians may get to savour the flavour of camel meat soon, now that Somalia, home to a third of the world’s camels, is looking to export the live animals to Malaysia.
In an article on Bloomberg, Mohamed Omar, director-general of the Ministry of Livestock, said the traditional “organic” methods used by Somali camel herders gave the meat “a unique taste”, a selling proposition the ministry was hoping to zero-in on when marketing the meat to our shores.
Apart from Malaysia, Somalia’s “hopes are high” that traditional buyers like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait will raise export figures in the next 12 months and in so doing, boost foreign-exchange earnings from its livestock trade.
Somalia has already expanded its port facilities for shipping live camels, cattle and goats, a move in the right direction as revenue hit US$384 million in 2015, the most in two decades.
This year alone, the country sold 5.5 million live animals, Omar said in an interview in the capital, Mogadishu, according to Bloomberg.
Somalia has an estimated 7.2 million camels according to the country’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, and is by far the largest producer of camel milk globally.
Not surprisingly, more than half its population of approximately 12.5 million rely on livestock for their food and income, the Somali Chamber of Commerce said.
Business is booming, Omar said, attributing vaccinations by veterinary professionals that has ensured healthy livestock, as one of the possible reasons why.
The livestock trade is likely to grow to 50 per cent of Somalia’s GDP in the coming year from its previous 40 per cent. It is also the largest contributor of foreign-exchange earnings after remittances from the Somali diaspora, Bloomberg quoted Ahmed Nur Hassan, a senior adviser at the central bank, as saying in an interview.
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