Camel milk and dairy in Somalia: a big producer that imports its milk powder

Where Xidig members may contribute

Service, collaboration and skills openings, not confirmed contracts or tenders:

• Milk collection and chilling points on routes into towns, run with women's collector groups.
• Hygiene and testing: simple quality tests, clean containers and training.
• Small-scale processing: pasteurised milk, yoghurt and ghee for local shops.
• Packaging and branding for fresh camel milk.
• Finance: savings groups or microloans for women traders to buy cool boxes and cans.

Possible services, research, supplier or collaboration roles

• A pilot solar-chilled collection point with a women's milk traders' group.
• A food-safety course in Somali for milk sellers.
• Research: how much milk is lost on one route, and what chilling would save.

Who may find this useful

• Dairy technologists and food-safety specialists.
• Refrigeration technicians.
• Women's cooperatives and milk traders.
• Veterinarians.
• Small food businesses.

Where the value goes

Production.

• Camels: FAO estimates Somalia's herd at 6.6 million camels (2025).
• Camel milk output: a 2024 UAE-led discussion paper to the international food-standards body, Codex Alimentarius, citing FAO data, puts Somalia's camel milk production at about 988,000 tonnes in 2022, second after Kenya. An earlier Codex paper (2023) gave 850,000 tonnes and ranked Somalia first. The figures are estimates.
• Yields: FAO says lactating camels in Africa "generally produce between 1 000 and 2 700 litres per lactation".

Women run the trade.

• Collection: in a Puntland case study, FAO wrote: "Milk and its marketing are managed mainly by women, even though men own the camels", and the women collectors' networks are the system's "backbone".
• Distance: herders walk "an average of nearly 9 km each day" to bring milk to collectors.
• Mogadishu: 91% of the 100 milk traders and smallholders surveyed in a 2023 study were women.

Losses.

• No testing: the Mogadishu study found traders "sell milk without conducting any kind of quality or quantity testing", and "64% of the residual milk is dumped" (of milk left unsold).
• Lower prices: a 2021 UNIDO study found spoiled milk sells at a "25% to 40% lower price".
• No refrigeration: milk moves "by pick-up vans without any refrigeration facility" (UNIDO, 2021; see Cold chain for fish, milk and meat in Somalia).

Most imported milk powder arrives from the UAE and Oman, some of it probably re-exported.

Imports.

• Milk powder: Somalia does not report its own imports, but its trading partners do. In 2023 they recorded about US$181M of whole milk powder (about 49,000 tonnes) shipped to Somalia. Other dairy lines add about US$15M (World Bank WITS, Xidig's sums).
• Consistency: that is broadly consistent with FAO's "over $200 million" estimate.
• Why powder: in Xidig's reading, powder keeps without refrigeration, which is exactly what fresh local milk lacks.

Cow milk is low-yielding. FAO's 2025 investment case for dairy notes yields of 1 to 2 litres per cow per day, against 5 to 10 litres elsewhere in the region. It proposes US$4.8M to raise fresh milk supply "from 3,460 liters/day in 2025 to 7,900 liters/day by 2029" in Lower Juba and Lower Shabelle, with collection centres and cold chain.

Markets abroad.

• Market size: estimates of the global camel milk market vary widely, from about US$7.5bn to US$14bn (as cited in a 2025 review in Small Ruminant Research).
• Standards: the Codex Alimentarius Commission agreed in 2025 to start work on a standard for pasteurised camel milk.
• Somali exports: Xidig found no official record of Somali camel milk exports.

Programmes. The World Bank's Food Systems Resilience Project (US$150M, 2023–2029) lists dairy as one of its value chains, with matching grants.

What this means.

• Where the money is lost: the gap is between the herd and the customer: chilling, testing and packaging.
• Where it could start: a large new processing plant is less urgent than reliable collection and cooling near towns, which would also help any processor that follows.

Dependencies and implementation constraints

• Power for cooling: solar or grid (see Solar power and battery storage in Somalia).
• Clean water and containers.
• Standards and testing capacity.
• Distance: herds are mobile and often far from towns.

Risks and unknowns

• Production figures are estimates.
• Price competition: imported powder is cheap and shelf-stable.
• Animal health: brucellosis and other risks; Xidig found no recent Somali data.
• The "old factories" in the government's proposal: their condition is not described.

Questions members should verify before acting

1. How far does milk travel to your town, and how is it kept cool?
2. What do traders pay pastoralists, and what do customers pay?
3. Who tests milk quality, if anyone?
4. Which of the "old factories" listed in the government's proposal still exist?

What is confirmed, and what isn't

Confirmed

• FAO's import estimate and the WITS mirror data for milk powder.
• The role of women in the milk trade (FAO Puntland case study and the 2023 Mogadishu survey).
• The losses reported in Mogadishu studies.

Our interpretation

• Collection and chilling matter more than a large new plant.

Not yet verified

• Current camel milk production and yields.
• Any exports of Somali camel milk.
• Animal-health and milk-safety data.

Relevant next steps

• Follow the Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range and the World Bank's Food Systems Resilience Project for dairy grants.
• Share milk prices and routes in your area through Xidig.