I lived in the Netherlands for many years and I fondly remember its windmills, its gorgeous fields of tulips, and of course its delicious cheese—made from that great Dutch koe melk (cow milk).
I don’t remember, however, seeing any camels grazing in the luscious Dutch pastures.
That’s why the headline in this morning’s news.scotsman.com got my attention.
Under the banner, “Dutchman battles bureaucracy to spread the milk of camel kindness,” one reads about an enterprising, and persevering, Dutch farmer who has 40 happy camels on his farm—he would like to eventually have 120 of them—and who sells their milk, and cheese.
I said “persevering” (the article uses the term “stubborn”), because it has not been easy for farmer Frank Smits to establish his unusual dairy just outside beautiful Den Bosch in Holland (I went to school nearby).
Not only is milking the camels hazardous (“moody camels spit and kick”) and are the mares headstrong (“mares give milk only if a calf is nearby”), but Smits has had to fight the European Union (EU) and Dutch bureaucracies, animal rights advocates, etc.
According to the news.scotsman.com, the EU forbids the import of camels, so Smits “found some in the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain,” and brought three pregnant camels to Holland, only to have…
Animal welfare groups [crying] foul, arguing the nation already had enough exploited animals – but he still managed to get his operation running, only to have it shut down a few months later by agricultural authorities because camels were not on an official list of farm animals.
Smits paid to have a Dutch government agency investigate whether they could be added to the list, which meant having to show he could run the farm “without unacceptable animal welfare consequences”.
Smits is now the only farmer in Europe with permission to sell camel’s milk.
Smits, 26, saw a market for camel’s milk in the rising number of immigrants to Europe from Somalia and Morocco, where camel’s milk has long been popular for its supposed medicinal properties. His milk sells for around [$]5 a pint at a few dozen Islamic groceries and health food stores in the Netherlands, with the rest exported to Belgium, Germany and Britain.
He was motivated by a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “which promotes camel’s milk not only for its nutritional value but also as a revenue source, especially for nomadic farmers. It said the market for camel’s milk products could be as large as $10 billion.”
Smits was aware of the belief that camel milk has medicinal properties—when unpasteurized.
However, unpasteurized milk is generally forbidden in Europe, but stubborn enterprising Smits “managed to obtain permission to produce unpasteurized camel’s milk, which he does with the help of a milking machine he developed.”
It is not an inexpensive business. Each camel costs about $11,000 and only produces about a gallon and a half of milk a day.
Still, Smits has ambitious plans:
Last year, he developed a camel’s milk cheese that sells for about [$]40 a pound, and he hopes to introduce bread to the world’s growing array of camel’s-milk products, like chocolate, ice cream and soap.
And, as I mentioned, he hopes to have about 120 camels by 2015, a number of camels he says is needed to make a profit.
So, don’t be surprised if on your next trip to beautiful Holland, you see a number of camels tip-toeing through the tulips or gingerly walking along a dike. And, please try some camel cheese, or kameel kaas.
Image: Courtesy regionalstudies.wikispaces
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.