# The camel milk trade: from herds to city markets

> Camel milk in Somalia: how much is produced and what it is worth, the abakaar women traders who supply Mogadishu, seasons and prices, milk 'tourism', and new dairies and yoghurt.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/economy/camel-milk-trade/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## How much is it worth?

The FAO estimates that Somali camels can supply about **1.47 million tonnes** of milk a year, worth about **USD 1.28 billion**, more than all live animal sales of every species combined. For camels and cattle, milk is about 75 percent of the income they bring ([FAO Statistics Working Paper 23-37, Otte and others, 2023](https://doi.org/10.4060/cc8138en)). Somalia is "by far" the largest producer of camel milk in the world, the FAO says ([Gulf Times, 2016](https://www.gulf-times.com/story/522520/worlds-biggest-camel-producer-targets-mideast-exports)).

## The abakaar of Mogadishu

A study by the anthropologist Urs Herren in 1987 to 1989 followed the camel milk trade into Mogadishu ([Herren, ODI Pastoral Development Network Paper 30a, November 1990](http://cdn-odi-production.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/5369.pdf)). It found:

- The trade is **run entirely by women**, called **abakaar**. Many are heads of households, widowed, divorced or left by their husbands, with a herding background.
- It moved **1.5 to 5 tonnes** of camel milk a day from herds **100 to 150 km** inland, reliably and at a price people could pay, with no outside help.
- Professional traders began coming to the area beyond [Wanlaweyn](/en/infrastructure/baledogle-airfield/) soon after **1970**, when the new Baidoa road was finished around 1973, and a milk traders' cooperative was formed in about 1971 or 1972.
- The "big abakaar" (abakaar weyn), 19 members of that cooperative at the time, carried milk in woven **haan** containers holding up to 50 litres, bought in Buulo Barde. "Small abakaar" and freelance traders used plastic jerrycans.
- Traders rented a truck each day to collect milk along the roads.
- Wealthier Mogadishu families sent women and children to villages such as [Leego](/en/history/somali-youth-league/) in the wet season to drink fresh, cheap milk. About 190 houses were owned by these visitors, who drank perhaps 1,000 litres a day.

## Seasons and prices

A milking camel gives about **600 litres** a year for people to drink. Daily milk can fall to **1 litre** in the dry Jilaal and rise to about **5 litres** in the late Gu rains. Milk is cheapest in the wet seasons, when there is most of it ([Herren, 1990](http://cdn-odi-production.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/5369.pdf)).

## New dairies

In August 2025 the Beder Camel Farm near Mogadishu ran Somalia's first factory turning camel milk into yoghurt. Its manager, the vet Dr Abdirisak Mire Hashi, said each camel on the farm gave up to 10 litres a day, double the 5 litres of the past. The report says only a fraction of Somalia's camel milk reaches supermarket shelves, and that the government has passed a Dairy Act ([Africanews, 5 August 2025](https://www.africanews.com/2025/08/05/camels-at-the-heart-of-somalias-agricultural-transformation/)).

## Related pages

- [Camels in Somalia](/en/economy/camels-in-somalia/)
- [Pastoralism in Somalia](/en/economy/pastoralism-in-somalia/)

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