Camels to Africa? Is This A Case of ‘Carrying Coals to Newcastle’?

There is an advertisement sponsored by an NGO which has been airing on Irish radio over the last number of weeks.

It features a goat asking the question: “are we there yet?”, and the goat being informed that their destination is ‘Africa’!

Image credit: John O’Neill (jjron)

The subject of the advertisement is a project which involves sending animals to the target destination being undertaken by the NGO, and which includes camels!

Really?

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the camel population in Africa is 30.1 million or 86.5% of the world’s total.

The region with the highest number of camels is Eastern Africa with 12.2 million.

Below, are the 2017 FAO figures for selected livestock related to Africa:

So, the question is: where did that camel “going to Africa” start its journey?

Incidentally, Africa’s goat population in 2017 according to the FAO was 423 million or 40.9% of the world’s total.

Image source: https://www.magzter.com/articles/3894/357652/5d2474f819af1

Image source: https://www.africanfarming.com/small-scale-farmers-export-live-goats/

So, perhaps there are enough camels and goats in Africa already?