Abstract

Anousheh Khomeini Khatami

There are approximately 25 million camels in the world where the global market for camel products has a potential of US$10 billion a year based on Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations. The comparative advantages of the camel as a dairy animal over the other species in the same environment are difficult to quantify; however in absolute terms, it is widely recognized that the camel produces more milk for a longer period of time than any other animal under the same condition. Camel meat and milk are utilized in some Arabic and African countries and also Iranian people, in marginal of desert, use the camel meat. At present, there are about 148000 camels in Iran that mainly are dromedary (one humped camel). This number can potentially increase by 600000. Camel raising must not only be socially acceptable, but also economically viable, so management of camel farming must be taken into consideration to increase the farmer income. This study aimed to clarify the performance of production as well as trade of camel population and products in some Middle East countries. Data were collected by FAO statistics (FAO, 2011) which is available online through this organization’s formal website for the period of 2000 to 2010. As a result, there has been a growing tendency to meet demand, particularly for milk, through imports. Thus, understanding the inter-relationships and conflicts between objectives and policies is a critical step towards designing and implementing more effective incentive systems. It was concluded that the meat and dairy production system of camel in the Middle East countries, especially Iran, regrettably received little attention because of unknown profit abilities of this animal.