Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development Foundation

Chr. Hansen initiates a CSR project to explore how camel cheese may make a difference in rural Kenya and Somalia.

Estimates of annual camel milk production are in the order of 935 million liters for Somalia and 320 million liters for Kenya. In Kenya, the estimated market value of camel milk produced per year, if it were all sold, would be in the order of 37.5 million US$ per year. Accordingly, the market value in Somalia would be approx. 130 million US$ per year.

Thousands of camel owners in arid regions of Northern Africa, where two thirds of the world’s camels live, could benefit from products that can help them increase the use-value of their humpback livestock.

Chr. Hansen and the Kenyan company Oleleshwa Enterprises Ltd. have initiated a CSR project aiming to improve the living conditions of small-scale camel owners. The project focuses on the development of basic knowledge about camel cheese production, to enable camel owners in rural Kenya and Somalia to produce camel cheese for both sales and own consumption.

Camel milk is low in fat, high in calcium, a rich source of protein and a potent source for delicious and durable cheese and cheese is a means to preserve the nutritious milk. The “secret ingredient” that will enable the camel owners to effectively turn their camel milk into delicious and shelf stable cheese is a pioneering and patented enzyme solution from Chr. Hansen called FAR-M^®. Using FAR-M^®, our camel chymosin produced by fermentation, camel owners will be able to produce tasty camel cheese with good curd firmness and superior yield compared to that of cheese made with bovine chymosin”, explains Product Manager Rolando Saltini, manager of the project at Chr. Hansen.

“If successful, this project could potentially improve the livelihood of thousands of rural inhabitants in Northern and Eastern Africa. Moreover, the project will help Chr. Hansen establish more knowledge about industrial production of camel cheese and, possibly, pave the way for future commercialization of FAR-M^® in Africa, the Middle East and Asia,” says Henriette Oellgaard, CSR Manager, Chr. Hansen.

The article is reprinted from Chr. Hansen with some editorial changes.

“Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center of Armenia” (SME DNC) Fund and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Enterprise Development and Market Competitiveness (EDMC) project, in the framework of the “Support to Dried Fruit Production” joint initiative, on April 18^th, held an introduction event at the Best Western Congress Hotel on the modern fruit drying technologies and quality standards for local dried fruit producing companies. The event was attended by the representatives from CARD Foundation, World Vision Armenia and Agricultural pact.

“There is a big potential in dried fruit production sector for product marketing and export in Armenia, if the producers follow the fruit and vegetable post-harvest drying rules  in compliance with international quality standards”, mentioned SME DNC Executive Director Varazdat Karapetyan in his opening remarks. The SME DNC Fund and its local and foreign partners are eager to support the Armenian dried fruit producers in contributing to the sector development and increasing the export volumes,” added Mr. Karapetyan.

In support of USAID, an expert had been invited from Italy who developed necessary quality standards for fruit drying in Armenia. “From now on, we will have to differentiate high, medium and low quality dried fruits. The producers will as well know the quality of their produce and be stronger in the market”, said Mr. Varazdat Karapetyan.

According to him, several local dried fruit producing companies exported some tons of dried fruit last year. At present, the current possibilities are being compiled to ensure fruit drying becomes one of export branches in Armenia. Nearly 60 dried fruit producers from the Ararat, Armavir, Tavush and the Meghri regions have already been involved in the projects for 2013. Four parallel projects are as well being implemented. For coming two years, it is planned to increase the quantity, volumes, reach the high quality, establish storage units and enhance export possibilities.

“It is quite welcoming that CARD Foundation is involved in this process and imports modern fruit drying technologies”, added Mr. Karapetyan.

Through the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) funds, CARD supports the farmers of the Meghri region in fruit production and marketing. Dried fruit production is paid much attention too. A research was conducted as a result of which it turned out that the sun drying technologies quite often fail to work due to unfavorable weather conditions. For the first time in Armenia, CARD imported electric and gas fruit dryers and it can be said that today, dried fruit production capacities have considerably increased which was made possible through the application of new equipments and technologies. Nowadays, the apricot is being dried within 20-24 hours, but previously this took up to 5-6 days. In addition, from sanitary point of view, the fruits dried in electric and gas dryers are very clean and exempt from dust, which is not the case in sun drying technologies.

EDMC international expert Ruggero Malossi, who has nearly 25 years of experience in food and beverage production, processing and packaging, talked about the dried fruit production and development perspectives in Armenia and highlighted that in general the quality is good, but as a matter of fact, the sanitary conditions are not good, neither is the packaging. Worth to mention that Ruggero Malossi,  along with SME DNC specialists, has cooperated with local producers for the provision of necessary criteria to apply international quality standards and has trained 17 dried fruit producers. The expert has also developed models, made offers for product marketing conditions and standards, developed a manual on dried fruit production and proposed to establish a Center for fruit drying.