Camelidious has been around for almost two decades, producing milk from the world’s largest farm, on the outskirts of Dubai. But new owner Mark Wyllie is ready to take camel milk to the next level, with ambitious plans to sell at least twice as much in the UAE. The mission is simple: more people, more camel milk, more often.
Wyllie says he has a strong following but sees a head houst. “Perhaps there are only 50,000 loyal users in the UAE. Honestly, there should be at least 100,000, because the benefits are there. It helps your power in the load, it gives power.” His job is to open that need, extol its values and health benefits to a new audience.
The first is focus. Camel milk will not try to take over cow’s milk, which has a distinct advantage when it comes to volume and price. The company’s herd and output are large by camel standards but small by industrial milk. To put it in context, the largest dairy in the Middle East produces nearly 4 million liters of crude per day. Camelidious, with 7,000 camels spread over 6.4 square kilometers, produces 4 million liters per year.
He says: “We will not compete for cattle,” he said. “We certainly wouldn’t pour milk over cornflakes
This “Final Strategy” is at the heart of the plan. When camel milk becomes the default in a flat white or a post-gym Shake, the category grows without pretense as part of a week’s worth of baby dishes. Melibisi Camel’s profile helps: It is naturally lower in fat than cow’s milk, different proteins that people find easier to digest, and a sweet, sweet taste that blends well. As Wyllie puts to the skeptics of the taste, start with a cappuccino or a smoothie and let the experience do the work.
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The role came to him unexpectedly, while he was working for the Saudi-based Almararai. Until he was visited by the camel owners, Wyllie had never tasted a drop of camel milk. “The interview with the camel job just came in,” he recalls. “I thought, I’m on the right side of 60. Ready to try something different? Let’s go with the camels.”
Since you started the summer, what was his first product? “I didn’t expect it to come with this amount of love. The product is loved. The product is amazing.” Wyllie soon started drinking camel milk and it’s safe to say he was converted. Now he comes in at half a liter a day, adding to his coffee.
If the UAE is the world’s witness, China is the engine of measurement. Camelious sells a large amount of camel milk to older Chinese consumers in single-use sachets that they take every day for good health.
The appeal is part of the narrative that Wyllie wants to tell more people that is “traceable, sustainable, ethical. “The next project to achieve that, turned it into a business that not only produces healthy camel milk, which is very important, but actually shows that you can do business in it.”
He looks to alternatives to cow’s milk as his symbol of growth. You can do business in soy milk and almond milk and goat milk and all these other expensive things, definitely business in camel milk. And that’s the least we have to prove now. “
