Camel sales up 20% at Saudi pageant

Cairo: Sales at a current edition of a famed Saudi camel pageant have increased by 20% compared to last year, the Saudi news agency SPA has reported.

Auctions held as part of the ninth edition of the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival have generated a high turnout, a sign of the success of the annual event in strengthening its position as a leading economic and heritage platform in the sector in the kingdom.

Several deals were concluded, especially in the category of Al Majahim, a prominent camel breed, SPA added without giving specific figures.

Investors and experts in the camel sector were quoted as attributing the growth in sales to several factors, mainly the expansion in the number of podium positions within the festival, a step that has given participants greater opportunities to display their camels and compete for the festival’s prizes.

This expansion has also helped attract a wide range of camel enthusiasts from inside and outside the kingdom, they added.

The festival market is currently the sole destination for participants wishing to support their farms with rare breeds of camels and for people whose main income depends on buying and selling camels.

The current edition of the festival started on December 1 and runs until January 3 under the theme “Pride of its People” in Al Sayahid north east of Riyadh.

Camels are a popular animal closely linked to heritage in Saudi Arabia. The animal has long been dubbed as the “ship of the desert”, being the lifeline for desert dwellers.

Saudi Arabia has designated 2024 as the Year of Camels, taking the shape of diverse programmes to boost national efforts to develop the camel sector.

The kingdom annually hosts the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, one of the world’s largest in the field. In recent years, the camel business has remarkably grown in the kingdom.