Page 12 - Food & Drink Magazine October 2019

✷ RISING STAR
Milking the caravan
The Camel Milk Co. began when Megan and Chris Williams bought three feral camels. Today it exports products around the world. Samantha Schelling writes.
IT WAS working on a remote outback station near Alice Springs in 2008 where Megan and Chris Williams not only met and fell in love with each other, but with the wild camels roaming on the 10,850 square kilometre cattle property as well.
Starting a camel milk dairy seemed like a great idea to Megan, who had grown up on a dairy farm in northern Victoria
So in 2014, the couple started Camel Milk Victoria – the state’s first licensed camel dairy – with three dromedary (single-hump) camels on 43.3 hectares near her childhood home.
Today the business farms 350 camels over 195 hectares. It was renamed The Camel Milk Co. Australia in 2017.
The camels are milked through an automatic five-aside double-up walk-through dairy.
From when they first began, the dairy allows for mother and calf to be together. This is a distinct animal husbandry choice the couple made.
Megan Williams says, “While we’re probably milking sixty to seventy at any one time, depending on the number who’ve calved, we built capacity to milk up to two hundred. We’ll hopefully achieve that goal in the next 12 months.
“We’ve got some really exciting things coming on board, and some deals coming up that we think will definitely increase demand.”
WILD BEGINNINGS
The couple’s first camels came from central Australia’s 1.2 million feral population, which roams around 3.3 million square kilometres.
According to FeralScan, these numbers possibly double every nine years, with Australia having the world’s largest feral Arabian camel population.
The Williams initially increased their herd by buying in wild camels, but it has grown naturally since 2017.
“There’s a nice feeling when you get a truckload of camels out of the wild, because they would have otherwise had a different destiny,” Williams says.
“Some are a bit more frightened than others, but our training process is really humble and really slow. We only train as the camel is ready. People who work with animals have told us we’re very patient and our process takes too long, but rather than breaking them, we gain their trust and work at a pace that suits us both.”
MILK TERROIR
The Camel Milk Co. aims to produce all its own feed, but like many farms during drought has had to buy in feed.
While they can purchase milk from other farms, currently all milk is sourced just from their own. For the Williams, this preserves the quality and taste of their “milk terroir”.
packaging is done on-farm, “just to make sure everything is in pristine condition”.
All product design and packaging for The Camel Milk Co. skin care range is done in-house, however, formulation is outsourced for both the formula itself and the contractor’s ability to make large volumes.
“We stick to what we do best. I’m no cheesemaker, so we outsource our feta cheese production to a brilliant company in Ballarat.
“We’re about quality not quantity. We want to make sure that every product we bring out is top quality, and if we can’t do it, we make sure we find the person who can.”
POTENTIAL ‘SUPERFOOD’ DRIVES GROWTH
Williams says their story of exponential growth is driven by a combination of factors.
“In 2014, camel milk was completely unheard of, so we were entering a brand new market. I think our early success was a
RE-BRAND AND
‘BIGGER MINDSET’
When the company rebranded in 2017, it was to become more recognisable on a global scale. In export markets, Australia is instantly recognisable and associated with being “clean and green”, Williams says.
“We went from a very earthy branding of green and blue, to a more trendy, upmarket branding with our colour schemes and logos.
“When we first entered the market, it was a bit of a husband-and-wife team going ‘hey, let’s sell some milk’. Then it turned big quite quickly, and we realised that we needed to have a bigger mindset, ready for the what would come next.”
NEW AND OLD FOLLOWERS
“With camel milk and cheese, our target market is really broad. Looking at our demographics, we have a huge Middle Eastern following who already know
12 | Food&Drink business | October 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
“ Each farm has their own individual taste as a result of animal genetics, diet and a range of other factors. From feedback, ours is significantly different to others.”
Williams says: “Each farm has their own individual taste as a result of animal genetics, diet and a range of other factors. From feedback, ours is significantly different to others.
“It’s just like some boutique dairy-cow farms, where their milk tastes completely different to that of the corporate processors.”
The company also does all its own processing and bottling on-site. Drying for milk powder is outsourced, but the final retail
combination of camel milk being dubbed a ‘superfood’, realisation of its nutritional benefits and being a dairy alternative.”
They also did some “pretty strong marketing” about camel milk being an alternative for those not able to drink cows milk.
“But really, we grew quicker than we were ready for. It was a bit ‘grow first’, then procedures came later. Trying to keep up with that is always interesting. But many businesses have experienced the same thing.”