Emirates to churn out its own camel-milk chocolate

DUBAI // Camel-milk chocolate will be produced in the UAE for the first time with the opening of a factory next year.

Although the chocolate has been made since 2008 under a UAE brand, Al Nassma, and made with milk from UAE camels, it was produced in Austria.

It contains camel-milk powder from the Dubai company Camelicious, owned by the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory. The Austrian company HM Chocolate Holding owns 50 per cent of Al Nassma.

"We send the powder from Dubai to Vienna, which is not usually allowed but we have a special permit from the Minister of Agriculture and the European Union," said Dr Ully Wernery, the lab's director.

The laboratory removes all water from the milk and turns the remaining solids into powder. Ten tonnes of the powder are shipped to Austria every year, producing about 35 tonnes of chocolate.

"We are only allowed to send the powder to Vienna if the chocolate is sent back to the UAE as a mass," said Dr Wernery.

The chocolate contains 28 per cent camel milk solids.

But not all of it comes back to the UAE. There is a shop in Japan dedicated to it and it is sold in a chain of Tokyo's supermarkets.

"It's been very successful there," said Dr Wernery. "Japan doesn't have as strong regulations as the EU so we were easily allowed to send it to them."

The aim is eventually to make the chocolate locally and sell it in Europe.

Dr Wernery said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, had even asked for it to be sold in Harrods in London.

But for now the focus remains on a small local factory that could churn out twice as much chocolate as the Austrian factory.

"This is a very good number," said Dr Wernery. "But the main problem we will face is the fact that we don't have enough milk yet."

The lab's 3,000 camels are not even close to meeting local demand for milk, with each producing an average of 10 litres a day.

The lab is trying to buy hundreds more camels of breeds that can produce at least 20 litres a day.

cmalek@thenational.ae