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Summary of full report
Assessing the potential
for a Commercial Camel Industry in Western Australia
A report for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
By Leah McCloy and Peter Rowe
August 2000
RIRDC Publication No: 00/123
RIRDC Project No DAW-92A
The project found that Western Australia could be enthusiastic about a strong camel industry developing from its extensive existing feral herd stocks. Western Australia also has strong trading relationships with Middle Eastern and Asian countries, which are the potential customers of camel meat. The State also has well developed international ports to export from.
The northern part of the State has a strong export cattle industry. The required infrastructure for camels is similar, so yarding facilities and some transport can be utilised. Some pastoral leases are very close to export ports such as Port Hedland and this would greatly reduce restrictive transport costs.
It is unlikely that a domestic meat market would be sustainable in Western Australia alone, the population is too small it would be difficult for camel to compete with the many different types of meats available on the market already. The financial input to educate and market camels for the domestic market would not be cost effective. The Central Australian Camel Industry Association already supplies the major supermarket chains in Western Australia and the market is not large enough to compete domestically with another supplier. The future lies with export markets and international alliances.
Recently requests from London, Hong Kong, Israel, and Egypt have been received. Potential customers are requesting prices and availability of camel meat and also live camels. This is encouragement to investigate further and locate a strong trading partner who will help drive the industry.
There is a lack of confidence found through out all production chain members in the camel industry currently and this stems from a lack export information. There is superficial evidence that markets exist for camel meat and live exports but insufficient work has been done in Western Australia. There is also a lack of cohesiveness within the States of Australia and unless an approach of cooperation occurs the industry will not thrive.
Once a camel industry is established, the pay off for Western Australia could be enormous. Camels co-graze effectively with cattle and are quite comfortable in a mixed herd with cattle. The degree of crossover in fodder shrubs selection is low. Adding camels to an existing pastoral cattle lease would involve limited additional costs. Initial trial work in Northern Territory has even shown a slight increase in weight for cattle which have been co-grazed with camels over the control group which had no camels in the paddock.
More work must be done establishing export markets but
once this is done and a new trade partnership and alliances has been established
the industry will move forward creating export opportunities for Western
Australia and Australia.
 
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