Below are presented answers to the following questions:

• What is the partner’s responsibility on this project? Which activities are already implemented and what is still in front of them?
• Whether it was difficult to cooperate with partners from other countries especially during the COVID 19, when most of the project activities were implemented online?

Marta Garron (IRTA, Spain), Project Coordinator, Leader of WP1 and WP 3

My responsibility is coordination of project activities but we (IRTA) also have responsibilities of pilot testing and pasteurization of camel milk at our facilities in Spain where we also make cheese out of camel milk.

During COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown some activities were delayed because the CAMELMILK project includes visits to farms in other countries and activities such as trainings and meetings and it was a bit difficult. Some activities we’ve done online, but some activities were delayed so we’ve extended project duration for 6 months so we could finalize all activities in a good way.

Bernard Faye (Faye, France), International Camel Expert, Leader of WP2

My main activity on this project was in regard of work package 2 which is focused on analysis of existing situation of the camel farming around the Mediteranean basin, among the partners, mainly Turkey, Algeria, Spain and France.

I’ve spent a lot of time to (1) analyse current situation, (2) then to know what we can do for improving situation in this camel farms for production and processing and (3) to train farmers, technicans and partners regarding the camel and dairy farming. Finally, I’ve published a book regarding the camel dairy farming in Turkish, Arabic, Spanish and French language.

Atakan Koc (ADU, Turkey)

I’m active in work package 3 and 4 – camel milk production and milk quality analysis and also in processing camel milk to fermented products. Also, I work in WP 6 – camel milk value chain analysis –through which we analyzed camel milk value chain in Turkey, Algeria and in Europe together with WP leader – APEX.

Amira Narimane Aouachria, University of El Oued (ELOUED), Algeria  

The first lesson regarding camel milk is that it is an exceptional product that we have to know its virtues in all the world. National studies in Algeria and international studies speak of its virtues and we must take care of it and regulate it especially to be able to market it and make it accessible everywhere and not only in Algeria and in countries where it already exists

Monika Kordić, (Genius Consulting d.o.o., Croatia), Leader of WP7 and WP9

In this project we’re coordinator of WP 7 – business development and marketing strategy development and also a leader of dissemination and communication activities for the whole project (WP9). Through WP7 we had an honor to design businness strategy and marketing plans for 5 companies (2 from Turkey, 1 from Algeria, 1 from France and 1 from Spain). It was a very nice experience because we’ve never met camel milk farmers before and we’ve analyzed the whole market in Mediteranean region and after that we identified a very specific marketing strategy – how to enter to their market and external markets. Furthermore, we designed a marketing plan with 3 scenarios – for short, medium and a long term access to Mediteranean and EU market.

At the same time, we developed an innovative business model which is completely different for each company and we were very happy that we managed to collect all the data from farmers which is very important because at the beginning, the data about camel farms was very difficult to get.

In WP9 we are responsible to manage the webpage, to present identity and the brand of camel-milk project all around the world and we are managing the social media.

Fabrice Weecksteen (CAMELIDEE, France)

It was very easy to cooperate with other partners on this project which involved 8 countries. Easy – because everyone wanted to participate in its success and everyone is driven by great passion. Despite COVID-19 and thanks to digital technology and video conferences we’ve managed to achieve all objectives we have set to ourselves.

For additional information you can see the video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj7ZK6T0xtA).