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February 28, 2019by EOS Intelligence EOS Intelligence No Comments

High Production Costs Dampen Camel Milk Market Potential

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Over the past few years, dairy-caused allergies and the growing debate regarding the inherent benefits and disadvantages of consumption of cow milk and its products have made consumers look for alternative sources to traditional dairy products. One product that has been growing in popularity owing to this is camel milk. Deemed to be the most expensive milk in the market, camel milk is known to have several medicinal values, especially for the treatment of diabetes, orthopedic problems, and autoimmune diseases. Few studies also claim that it is beneficial for the treatment of autism. While camel milk remains a niche product at the moment, it will be interesting to see if this product can make a dent in the massive dairy-milk industry, especially with the presence of several other healthy plant-based milk alternatives.

Growing demand and expanding production

Camel milk is not a new product as it has been consumed in the Middle East for ages, however, it is only recently that it has sparked global interest. Owing to its significant health benefits (primarily for diabetes), the product has found traction especially in developed countries, such as the USA, parts of Europe, Singapore, and Australia. The global market, which was valued at about US$4.24 billion in 2017 is estimated to register a CAGR of about 7% during 2018-2022.

Investments to expand Australian camel milk production

In response to the growing demand, several companies (especially across Australia) are entering the camel milk space and are increasing their investments in the sector.

Australia’s Wild Camel Corporation has expressed plans to increase its herd size five-fold from 450 camels to 2,500 camels over the next two years.

Similarly, Western Australia-based Good Earth dairy, which in mind-2018 had about 100 camels, plans to expand to 3,300 camels by June 2020, which would help the dairy produce about 10,000 liters of camel milk in a day.

Victoria-based The Camel Milk Co. doubled its milk output in 2017 to reach 250 liters a day from a herd of 250 camels. It has also maintained a scope for further expansion by moving to a farm that can house a herd of 1,000 camels, planning to increase its herd size along with growing demand.

International investments are also pouring into Australia’s camel milk market. In 2017, UAE-based investors funded a US$6 million (AUD8 million) pilot camel milk farm at Rochester, Australia. Several Chinese investors are also reported to be interested in investing in the camel milk business in the country.

India’s camel milk production grows as well

In addition to Australia, India (and a few African countries, such as Kenya and Ethiopia) has also focused on increasing camel milk production.

India-based Aadvik Foods and Products, which procures raw camel milk from Indian camel breeders and herders and processes and markets it, has significantly increased its scale of operations. It started with procuring and processing 80-100 liters milk per month in 2015 and moved on to procuring and processing close to 8,000 liters per month in 2017.

In January 2018, Rajasthan’s State Government (in partnership with Jaipur-based Saras Dairy) announced its plans to set up a mini camel milk plant in Jaipur. The plant will cost US$1 million (INR 70 million) and is expected to be set up by the end of the year. Post the establishment of the Jaipur plan, the government plans to open another mini plant in Bikaner.

Expanding food product lines

In addition to processing and marketing camel milk, several companies across the globe are expanding their product base to include camel milk products such as milk powder, chocolate, cheese, infant formula, ice cream, etc.

In 2016, Desert Farms, a US-based camel milk company, added camel milk soaps and camel milk powder to its product range.

In 2017, India-based Aadvik Foods, also extended its camel milk product line to include camel milk chocolates and milk powder.

In a similar move, Amul, one of India’s largest dairy cooperatives, launched camel milk chocolates in late 2017. Unlike most other players in the market, Amul has first started with chocolates and then wishes to enter the packaged camel milk market in the near future.

In 2018, Australia’s QCamel announced its plan to launch camel-milk chocolates for the Australian as well as international markets.

In February 2018, UAE-based Camelicious launched the world’s first camel milk infant formula for children aged one to three, an alternative for children who are lactose-intolerant.

The camel products for children are praised for their benefits, as camel milk is the closest alternative to mother’s milk in terms of nutritional value. Since camel milk is beneficial for children as it has higher iron and vitamin C content compared with other milk options, products such as chocolates, infant formula, and ice cream, seem to be smart product extensions, especially if such benefits are highlighted through marketing.

Moreover, product extensions help companies reach a greater audience for their camel milk. Since camel milk is saltier than the largely consumed cow milk, products such as chocolates, help garner users that otherwise may reject camel milk due to taste preferences.

High retail prices hamper demand growth

While camel milk as a product is gaining popularity and acceptance globally, it is not without its share of challenges. Camel milk is the most expensive type of milk in the market.

In the USA, Desert Farms sells one gallon of camel milk for US$144 (US$38 per liter), while it sells a kg of camel milk powder for about US$370. In comparison, a gallon of cow milk sells for about US$3.50 in the USA.

In Singapore, a liter of camel milk sells for about US$19 per liter (US$72 per gallon). In comparison, cow milk sells for close to US$8 per gallon in Singapore.

Similarly, camel milk in India costs about US$7 per liter and camel milk powder costs close to US$87 per kg, whereas cow milk retails for about US$0.6 per liter.

While the benefits of camel milk are plentiful, they do not always justify the high price in the eyes of the consumer. The high cost can be attributed to the high production cost and low yield compared with dairy cattle produce.

In Australia, the cost of producing one liter of camel milk is around US$13 (AUD17), while in India a liter of camel milk cost US$5-6 (INR 350-400) to produce – in comparison to this, producing one liter of cow milk costs farmers about US$0.27-0.32 (AUD0.37-0.44) per liter in Australia and US$0.2-0.27 (INR 14-22) per liter in India.

Camels also produce less milk in comparison with cows. While cows produce around 16 liters a day, a camel usually produces only 6 liters a day.

While the benefits of camel milk are plentiful, they do not always justify the high price in the eyes of the consumer.

In addition to the barrier of high price and costs, camel milk also faces significant competition from plant-based milk alternatives, such as soy, almond, and coconut milk. These milk options are also considered to be a healthy alternative to cow milk and have the added benefit of being vegan. Moreover, while these milk options are more expensive in comparison with cow milk, their prices are still considered more reasonable when compared with camel milk price.

EOS Perspective

Camel milk has a lot of inherent benefits, which are expected to ensure steady sales growth over the next decade. While there are no doubts regarding the growing popularity of camel milk, it is too far-fetched to say that this market can dent the dairy mega-industry. Camel milk market is standing at the beginning of its promising growth curve, however, it must work towards pushing the production costs down to become more mainstream rather than niche, which will not be achieved by simply marketing the medicinal properties of the product.

Camel milk market is standing at the beginning of its promising growth curve, however, it must work towards pushing the production costs down to become more mainstream.

Several dairy farms across the globe have realized this aspect and are working towards achieving economies of scale and getting costs down through increasing operations size and venturing into extended product lines. While it is certain that the industry will continue to grow, it is yet to be seen whether it can create a shelf space for itself across large retail stores or whether it remains a primarily niche premium online sales product mostly for affluent consumers.

May 23, 2013by EOS Intelligence EOS Intelligence No Comments

Will Pharma Tweet Louder? 6 Rules of Doing it Right on Social Media

Initially considered to be exclusively a tool for common people to connect with friends and share their private pictures, social media platforms have now gained the status of a potent communication channel eagerly used by companies across the world. While the expansion of social media is influencing the way businesses are conducted today, pharma and healthcare industry has been somewhat slow and reluctant to use it to its fullest potential.

By 2012, Facebook user base crossed 1 billion mark, increasing by 200 times since 2005, while Twitter recorded tremendous growth, reporting 200 million active users sharing 400 million tweets per day. While some industries such as consumer goods, retail, and hospitality have been benefitting from engaging with their customers through a range of social media platforms, other sectors, including pharma and healthcare, have been slow to join the ‘social crowd’.

Points of concern

There is a reason why healthcare-related sectors were late on the social media map. Creating an open platform for communication on health and drugs aspects, raises a range of concerns: the FDA regulations, patient confidentiality, cyber security, unavoidable off-label use discussions, uncontrolled negative comments, and risks of providing wrong medical advice that could lead to lawsuits. The FDA in particular, plays an important role here, through its Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications (DDMAC), which lays out the rules of the content that can and cannot be communicated, what content must be included and the manner in which the communication must occur. The fears associated with social media activity monitoring by the FDA, typically originate from three problems:

Lack of clarity and formal guidelines – in 2011, the FDA published draft guidelines, and it is yet to develop definitive rules on social media policy. The FDA is acting slow, and there is no clarity on dos and don’ts for social media engagement, yet the authority regularly scans the social space to monitor risky communication, while pharma companies find the rules of the game ambiguous
User-initiated off-label use discussions – a common issue in pharma social media platforms is user questions and discussions on off-label use of drugs, i.e. using a drug in a different way than described in the approved drug label or leaflet. This is considered unsolicited content and companies must respond and correct such a content occurring in public forum as these discussions might encourage dangerous experiments with drugs by patients or might be confused with recommended and approved use of a drug
Adverse event reporting obligation – the FDA obliged pharma companies to immediately report any adverse drug effect or reaction they learn about. Social media give platform for large numbers of patients to share their experience with adverse drugs effects, and the companies are afraid they will have to report it, which may cause investigations, bad press, and might lead drug being banned from sale

Similar fears are faced by non-US pharma companies too, as the FDA’s local counterpart authorities introduce similar regulations on communication via social media, which at times can be even stricter than the American ones.

Game worth the candle

Ignoring the risks by pharma companies can unfold a range of undesirable scenarios, a fact that has kept many drug makers hesitant of engaging in social media for quite some time. But this does not mean that pharma and healthcare organizations are still not present in social media at all. To the contrary, pharma companies, healthcare providers, device manufacturers, and health insurers have started to listen and engage with users through social platforms, though many of them still do it cautiously and have still not been able to unlock the social media’s full potential. These players have started to understand that with careful moves, the benefits will outweigh the risks:

generate engagement and discussion around health issues, which contributes to the positive reputation and brand image, and obviously – increase sales,
get quick, cheap, first-hand information on drugs’ effects on a large scale, which brings valuable insights that are not available from regular clinical trials whose scale is always smaller,
gather information invaluable in building marketing strategies, including pointers on price perceptions, drug availability as well as patients’ opinions about competitors’ drugs.

Who’s doing it?

Though it was estimated that in 2011, 90% of the pharmaceutical industry was still inactive on social media, currently, this has changed (though today’s participation share is unknown). Several pharma-sponsored communities are now active across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, on one or multiple platforms, with a differing level of interactivity and different weight being put on inbound versus outbound marketing. Some of the examples include:

Roche’s Accu-Check Diabetes Link, a diabetes-support community with information, discussions, and blogs
GSK’s Alli Circles well-being, weight loss, and health community
Novartis’ CV Voice for cystic fibrosis patients and Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia own community-based site CML Earth
Pfizer’s community ‘getold.com’ targeting the expanding elderly group of the American population
Sanofi US’ Diabetes support community
Soon-to-be-launched Boehringer Ingelheim’s Facebook-based game, where players create and operate their own pharmaceutical firm, and discover imaginary medicines through virtual laboratory

Getting it right

It appears that the healthcare industry is finally attempting to catch up on the social media revolution in spite of a slow start. From primarily information dissemination, it is now moving towards real time engagement between physicians, patients, and other stakeholders. Soon, developing a social media policy will no longer be an option for pharma companies. But this should not be seen as a burden, but rather as an immense opportunity for the pharmaceutical companies to develop trust, build brand image, and impart health education. Drug makers that want to be successful on their social media path should consider 6 basic rules of online presence for pharma companies:

Take your risks seriously – social media engagements, especially in pharma domain, always raise privacy, legal, and confidentiality concerns among the participants and monitoring bodies. Extra cautiousness in operating online communities is of utmost importance, including constant monitoring of the content being added by individual users and patients. Social platforms also pose risk of incorrect drug information or unfair accusations that might damage your image, but it can be flipped to an advantage, using the platform to quickly clarify and avert unwanted comments, provided that you have a dedicated, competent staff handling your social media
Control your speakers – given the high risks and ambiguity of formal guidelines, there is a need for internal policy or guideline book listing dos and don’ts for online communication, content approval process, crisis management practice, confidential information sharing policy for employees running social platforms on behalf of the company
Know your target audience – the social media pharma-related content must stay relevant and target focused groups to have the right impact. Patients with a particular disease or ailment look for relevant, detailed information, and they typically already know quite a bit about the problem. Expertise must be shown along with dedication to creating high quality content, that is useful, new, and (ideally) entertaining
Get the objective right – social media is not another advertising board. The primary aim of the social media presence is to generate engagement as well as share and manage knowledge by facilitating interaction and discussions. This must take precedence over advertising
Be transparent – transparency is always appreciated by consumers and patients. The link with the company must be clear, users working for the company must disclose their affiliation, and negative comments, unless unjustified or vulgar, cannot be censored
Understand that social media are not a lone island – social media activity and content must be aligned with overall marketing strategy and be used cohesively with all other marketing channels, ideally to complement each other. Social media cannot become a neglected child of the marketing department in a long run, it must be maintained actively and linked to other marketing efforts whenever possible (e.g. to disseminate important announcement teasers, generating traffic to blog entries, or provide interactive content as part of larger marketing campaign including traditional media)

Social media engagements by drug makers might seem only as a nice publicity stunt, but it is so much more than that. Pharma companies, as most players across many industries, finally started to realize that listening and engaging with conversation with the customer pays off in many aspects. Just as was the case in consumer goods or retail sectors, social media will continue to change the pharma industry on a large scale. Players who want to matter, should not allow themselves to stay behind, even considering the risks involved.

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