Agrivita new high-performance camel feed packs fleet-footed promise

Camel races are held over distances of 1, 3 and 5 kilometres, with animals beginning their racing careers when they are a year old. Jaime Puebla / The National

Is your camel struggling to keep up with the pack? Fear not, for help is at hand, with the launch of a new high-performance camel food, designed especially for racing animals.

Agrivita Feed Solutions yesterday announced the launch of The Championship Racing Camel High Performance Feed, the product of a year’s worth of “extensive research and development between animal nutritionists and camel trainers”.

The new feed is formulated “for maximum speed and performance of racing camels, enriched with minerals, vitamins, energy and nutrients to enable endurance and protection against high effort and stress”, said Agrivita’s trade marketing manager, Rajeswari Gopalan.

“For breeding, training or competing, we recommend that racing camels consume between 1.5kg to 2kg of Agrivita Champion feed per day at the discretion of nutritionists and trainers, to maintain optimum health and superior performance,” she said.

She declined to comment on what improvements in speed camels consuming the feed can expect to achieve.

The product was shown off at Agra Middle East, an agribusiness trade event in Dubai.

Agrivita, known until last month as Grand Mills Animal Feed, is a subsidiary of Agthia Group, the Abu Dhabi-listed food company.

The new feed launch coincides with the end of the domestic camel racing season, with the UAE’s approximately 70,000 racing camels given several months off for rest and recuperation.

Last week brought the culmination of the Al Wathbah Cup, Abu Dhabi's premier camel racing event, regarded as the official end of the domestic racing season.

The event, which awards prizes including Toyota Land Cruisers, attracted about 8,000 camels and their owners.

While the Al Wathbah Cup marks the official end of the racing season, subsequent racing sessions will be held in Marmoun and Al Wathbah in May.

Pre-season training will commence around July, with the racing season expected to kick off in earnest in September.

Camel races are held over distances of 1, 3 and 5 kilometres, with animals beginning their racing careers when they are a year old.

Racing camels can achieve speeds of up to 70kph.

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