The mini-dairy started up in 1989. At first it only processed camels milk, which was the only fresh milk available around Nouakchott, the capital town. Cow milk began in 1990, and goat milk was added in 1998.

Milk is bought from a considerable number of herders, who have neither farms nor fences, and who milk by hand.

It was the first dairy in Africa - and the second in the world - to pasteurise camel milk.

The dairy operates state-of-the-art stainless steel continuous pasteurisation equipment and packages milk in gable-top cartons. Product quality is controlled in compliance with European standards.

The beginning was difficult, owing to many factors, including traditional prejudice against selling milk, consumer preference for imported goods, and so on. However, high-quality fresh dairy products gradually won over imported sterilized milk, and sales gradually increased. In 2002, milk deliveries reached 20,000 liters a day, but the drought dealt a severe blow to the sector.

Over the years, herders found that the regular income from milk sales raised their standard of living, enabled them to feed their livestock in dry periods, and became faithful suppliers. Nowadays thousands of camels, cows and goats are milked by hand, wherever they happen to be, and a network of pick-up vehicles carry the milk churns twice a day, over distances up to 90 km, to three collecting centres located in towns along the Senegal river. The herds continue to move around, their owners still live in tents or huts in the traditional way, but a thousand families receive a regular income from their milk.

The dairy also provides veterinary care, vaccination and feed, on credit, as well as instruction on hygiene.

Raw milk quality is so good that raw cow (zebu) milk is processed in the new UHT plant without any difficulty.

Milk production and milk consumption are very seasonal in the harsh desert climate. Unfortunately, they follow opposite patterns. Milk is abundant when nobody is thirsty, except during the rainy season when it is particularly difficult to collect.

To solve this problem, a new plant has been built, with self-funding and loans provided by PROPARCO, IFS and EIB, to produce long-shelf-life UHT milk. It processes cow milk successfully, but camel milk becomes unstable at the high temperature applied during the UHT process. Research and testing is underway, in the hope that this hurdle can be overcome.

A project to make cheese from camels' milk received a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 1993 (http://rolexawards.com/projet/projlau/d_abei.html).

Camel cheese is not easy to make, as camel milk does not curdle naturally. Besides, cheese making needs a cool, damp climate, which is not the case of Mauritania.

With the help of an FAO Technical Co-operation Programme, including the expertise of French Professor J.P. Ramet - who carried out the original research for FAO and discovered how to curdle camel milk - two types of cheese were made and 'designed' for the European market, cheese not being a tradition in Mauritania.

In fact, European regulations do not include camel milk : as a result new regulations must be drafted specially. Scientific research has been undertaken to find technical solutions for camel milk specific behaviour in relation to some tests.
It is hoped that camel cheese will soon be available for export.

Visit the site of the organization in charge of providing milk suppliers with animal feed, veterinary care, and helping them improve the profit from their herds and the quality of the dairy's raw material :

http://www.apltmauritanie.com