A Report on the Camel Milk Marketing Clusters in ... - ELMT Home

CARE KENYA/SITE NOV 2009
The pastoralist communities use wooden gourds for storage of camel milk. Their inner surfaces
are not very smooth therefore they retain milk residues after cleaning which shortens the keeping
quality of the milk stored in them. They are however ideal for
fermentation and storage of fermented milk.
Aluminium milk containers would be the best for the storage of
camel milk since they are easy to clean and sterilize. It is also easy
to cool milk stored in them by dipping the cans in clean cold
water.
Wooden milk containers Aluminium or stainless steel sufurias with lids can also be used for
storing milk since they are easy to clean, sterilize and are locally
available. P roper cleaning of the gourds will immediately improve the quality of milk before
acquisition of the aluminium containers.
iii. Equipment of milk transport
Milk transport in Garissa is currently dominated by plastic containers of various sizes ranging
from 5 liters to 20 litres. They are widely available from the local Garissa market and are mostly
ex-cooking oil plastic containers. They are preferred by the transporters
because they are easily tied onto the milk transport vehicles. They typically
have a hole on their lid and a string through it as a way of securing the lid.
Aluminium/stainless steel milk transport cans would be the recommended
transport containers to replace the plastic ones if there was no challenge in
transportation and temperatures. This is because they are easy to clean,
sanitize, are durable and unlike the plastic milk containers, they are good
A plastic milk container heat conductors hence can allow for easy heating and cooling of milk in
them. However, due to the mode of milk transport being used currently, it
would be necessary to have harnesses for the aluminium milk cans - in form of baskets made out
of natural or artificial gunny bag material. The harnesses will allow for the tying of the milk onto
the transport vehicle and will also cushion the milk cans against knock-impact during transit.
Aluminium milk cans and scoop
The harnesses would shield the milk against dust. In addition, wetting the milk harnesses just
before milk transit will also allow for evaporative cooling of the milk thus lengthening its shelf
life. The camel milk handlers were introduced to these aluminium cans during the training on
hygienic milk handling. The cans are available in many sizes ranging from 5 litres, 10, 15 upto
50 litres from several manufacturers’ in Nairobi’s Industrial area as well as imports from India.
Assignment <strong>Report</strong> under ELMT compiled by SITE
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