{"id":444902,"date":"2026-01-29T10:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444902\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:11:15","slug":"queensland-farm-cashing-in-on-us-wellness-industry-demand-for-camel-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444902\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland farm cashing in on US wellness industry demand for camel milk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A south-east Queensland camel farm will begin exporting its milk to the United States for the first time in a landmark deal for the emerging industry.<\/p>\n

Summer Land Camels on the Scenic Rim, just outside of Ipswich, is hoping to have the first shipments moving to California by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

It operates a flock of about 300 camels, including 250 it uses for milking.<\/p>\n

\"Camels<\/p>\n

An estimated one million feral camels are believed to be in Australia, but around 300 call this idyllic farm home. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Farm owner Paul Martin said they would start with exporting between 30,000 to 60,000 litres of milk a year to the US.<\/p>\n

“It’s just down to us now getting the approvals.<\/p>\n

“We’d be the first ever accredited facility for fresh [but frozen] milk into the US.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Martin says Australia can benefit from farming rather than culling its feral camel population. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

There are believed to be more than a million feral camels in Australia, making it one of the largest feral camel populations in the world.<\/p>\n

The animals were introduced into the country about 180 years ago as a means of transporting items and people across vast distances.<\/p>\n

But as the country industrialised cars, trucks, trains and planes replaced the animal as a means of transport.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

There are believed to be more than a million feral camels in Australia. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Mr Martin and his team muster some of these feral camels from the outback and bring them to the farm \u2014 which has grown into a major tourist attraction in the region.<\/p>\n

“I think from where it’s come from, to see an animal that was shot and discarded \u2026 to now seeing people come and fall in love with them \u2026 it’s amazing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Camel milk contains a lower amount of lactose than cows’ milk, making it easier for some people to digest \u2014 though it has a slightly saltier taste.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Coffee made with camel milk is sold at the farm. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Emerging market<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said there was an emerging market for camel milk in the US \u2014 especially in the health and wellness space.<\/p>\n

“The market has grown over there \u2026 it’s probably more around that alternative dairy, but they also have a massive Chinese and Somali population that are familiar with camel milk,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So it’s looking to tap into that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Camel milk has a variety of uses, including in alcohol. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

He said tariff restrictions from the US government were not a concern at this stage for the operation.<\/p>\n

Summer Land Camels is one of several dairies in operation around Australia. Others export items like milk powder and skin care products to Asia and other regions.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said the dairy on the Scenic Rim would need to be upgraded to cater for the extra demand.<\/p>\n

“We’re very artisan at the moment. We hand fill bottles and things like that. So, to go into the US, we need to go to automation,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Martin will need to upgrade his bottling system if his bid to export to the US is successful. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

“It will be an automated bottling system, and the dairy will need some upgrades.<\/p>\n

“It’ll certainly mean more milking, more staff. We currently only milk once a day and will probably go to twice a day.”<\/p>\n

Opportunities for ‘best farmers in the world’<\/p>\n

While camel milk is a new niche export, experts believe there is a wide demand for high-quality Australian products globally.<\/p>\n

Agriculture expert Professor Ben Lyons from the University of Southern Queensland said there was some “real scope” for unique Australian products on the global stage.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got some of the best farmers in the world. We deal with some of the most variable climate. We’re quite good at it, and we’re very good at exporting,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Agriculture expert Professor Ben Lyons said more farmers are looking to diversify away from traditional industries. (ABC News: Brandon Long)<\/p>\n

“Once we get the fundamentals in terms of production and economics right [for new products], we can definitely develop export markets.”<\/p>\n

Professor Lyons said long-established export industries like beef and wool originally started out as niche products, before growing into what they are today.<\/p>\n

“We are at an inflection point now where a lot of people are looking to diversify away from more traditional established industries, and I’d suggest camel dairy is one example of that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve also seen it in things as diverse as semi-processed herbs like basil that you see in tubes. They’ve had a bit of an export story.<\/p>\n

“The challenge we have is that when you whenever you’re trying to export, the journey’s long in developing a customer base as well as the transaction that sustains it and in a in a globalised world it may becoming a bit more challenging with geopolitical risk and things like that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

US exports might only be the beginning for farmer Paul Martin. (ABC News: Charlie McLean)<\/p>\n

Back on the Scenic Rim, Paul Martin said expanding to the US was only the start of his expansion plans.<\/p>\n

“We’re going on a trade mission to Singapore next month to take camel milk over there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So, there’s certainly an avenue to get fresh milk straight out of the Brisbane Airport, it’s just how we can get the product to market.<\/p>\n

“We’re also working on a couple of powdered products to go into China as well.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A south-east Queensland camel farm will begin exporting its milk to the United States for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,30868,30869,12888,31367,13330,107563,43669,15158,29488,20664,94,701,2484],"class_list":["post-444902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-camel","tag-camels","tag-export","tag-farm","tag-farming","tag-harrisville","tag-ipswich","tag-livestock","tag-milk","tag-produce","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-scenic-rim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}