Two years ago, Latifa Fifita, 32, launched near Médenine (south -east) the only pasteurization factory of camel milk in the country. She relied on the work of Amel Sboui, 45, researcher of the Institute of Arid Regions (IRA) – Public organization based in this disadvantaged area – which has patented new pasteurization techniques.Maintaining nutrient and therapeutic properties“From this milk.
Five times richer in iron than cow’s milk, it is deemed to be non-allergen, which can stimulate the immune system, with also antioxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
Ms. Sboui, a doctor of biochemistry which has been studying it for 20 years, has also demonstrated with its team of 10 people (including 80% researchers) its anti -diabetic effect which allows a reduction – up to half of the drug doses.
At the beginning, the entrepreneur Latifa Fifita had “a lot of difficulties” in convincing breeders, focused on dromedar meat, to sell her milk.
“”They are used to consuming it or giving it for free“Without giving it importance,” she explains to AFP, testing a sample before the essential pasteurization, which allows it to be kept up to 15 days at 4 degrees.
Now that “A relationship of trust“is established, Latifa Fifita plans to sign conventions with breeders.
It took seven years of preparations for this holder of a masters in food techniques to launch in 2023 its start-up Chamelait, with the support of the IRA which hosts it in its business nursery, a few meters from Ms. Sboui’s laboratory.
Latifa is proud of “Promote a product of the terroir which defines the southern Tunisian“Where dromedaries are part of the landscape. This mother of a two -year -old girl preferred”Stay and invest in your region“Rather than following her sports coach husband in the Middle East.
The IRA Chenchou trafficking experimental station, 100 km south of Médenine, also serves as a training center to show breeders in this other poor area the advantages of mechanization: a simple pot-trayeur allows a production of 6 to 7 liters per day per camel to only 1 to 2 liters by manual milking. Even if the camels should be set up beforehand.
Growing demand
Two years after her first steps, Latifa Fifita produces “500 liters per week with the aim of arriving at double within two years“. Chamelait, who recruited two other women including her older sister, sells milk on order and in 12 stores from 12 dinars (4 euros) per liter, twice the purchase cost for breeders.
And demand is growing.
For Amel Sboui, this is the effect of “Word-to-watch: people achieve the benefits of this milk for health“.
In addition to Chamelait resulting from the work of her laboratory, the researcher imagines other valuations of this milk which, after lyophilization (another patent), could “be sold as medication, alicament or food supplement”, for more research.
For the IRA, the Latifa factory is a successful concretization of its philosophy – developed under the first Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba – of a transfer of his experiments to the deprived arid territories.
The Medenine region (525,000 inhabitants) is hardly struck by poverty and unemployment (22% against 15% at the national level and 19% against 16%, according to official figures) which push thousands of young people to leave it or emigrate.
“”Our main objective, even as a research center, is to create added value and jobs“Explains Moez Louichi, responsible for promoting IRA. By helping” project leaders including young graduates to promote the wealth of the region and create opportunities to stay in Tunisia “.
Since 2010, the Institute has hatched 80 companies, generating “from 600 to 1,000 jobs”, according to Mr. Louhihi.
For the “camel milk” neo-filier, the creation of a first milk collection center by the end of 2025 and the mechanized milking in several farms should, according to him, also cause hires. Potentially transforming this product abandoned into “white gold” for the region.