Land, farming and livestock
The camel milk trade: from herds to city markets
Camel milk is the most valuable thing Somali herds produce: the FAO values the milk that can be taken from camels at about USD 1.28 billion a year. Since the early 1970s women traders called abakaar have carried camel milk from herds 100 to 150 km inland to Mogadishu, moving 1.5 to 5 tonnes a day by the late 1980s. In 2025 the first camel-milk yoghurt factory opened near Mogadishu.
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). Somalia is "by far" the largest producer of camel milk in the world, the FAO says (Gulf Times, 2016).
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). 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 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 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).
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).
Related pages
Sources
- FAO Statistics Working Paper 23-37, Otte and others, 2023 · doi.org
- Gulf Times, 2016 · gulf-times.com
- Herren, ODI Pastoral Development Network Paper 30a, November 1990 · cdn-odi-production.s3.amazonaws.com
- Africanews, 5 August 2025 · africanews.com
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Where this matters
- Muqdisho (Mogadishu) and BanaadirMogadishu (Muqdisho) is Somalia's capital and makes up the Banadir region, with about 2.97 million people in 20 districts.
- Jowhar (Johar) and Middle ShabelleMiddle Shabelle is the farming region along the Shabelle river north of Mogadishu, with Jowhar as its capital and about 1 to 1.26 million people.
- Marka (Merca) and Lower ShabelleLower Shabelle is Somalia's biggest farming region, along the Shabelle river south-west of Mogadishu, with Marka (Merca) as its capital and about 835,000 to…
- Baydhabo (Baidoa) and BayBay is a farming region in South West State, with Baidoa (Baydhabo) as its main city and about 1.25 to 1.8 million people.
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