King Abdul Aziz Camel Festival

Learnt about Saudi camel heritage through “friendship”

The American “Joseph” from an investor in training into a competitor on the camel race festival

It did not occur to the mind of American “Joseph”, when he made an investment in the field of education and training, that it would lead him to enter the heart of the most ancient Saudi inherited sports, “camels”, and to compete for the highest and largest prizes at the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. Moreover, it even lead to attracting other investments in the field.

Four years ago, the visit of his acquaintance “Faisal Al-Qahtani” with friends led to him to getting to know “camels” closely for the first time and to explore the depths of the experience that the Saudis have in their relationship with the desert and their deep-entrenched traditions. This very moment got him into the singles’ race of camels in the fifth Camel Festival.

From a farm in Al-Kharj in Saudi Arabia, “Joseph” was acquiring a new passion that would consume his weekends, exploring the way of life in the desert, the desert picnics with friends and their camps that he travels between them with his friends for consecutive days.

When “Joseph” finds an opportunity of time off his work, which is associated with a number of universities in the Kingdom, he returns to the desert to exercise his passion. He wears the Saudi dress, sits next to burning fire, and drinks camel milk. With this, and his passion for getting acquainted with camels and their characteristics and seeking to acquire and adopt that whole experience, he set out looking for a way to own his own camels and buy a caravan for himself.

As “Joseph” was hanging out with his friends, he got to know about the Camel Festival, followed its news and competitions. With the increasing talk about investing in camels and attracting investors from the “Camel Club”, he intended to enter the field. Joseph shared his intention with his friends to own competitive camels for the fifth camel festival competitions.

With the help of his colleague Al-Qahtani, “Joseph” was ready to invest an amount of SR 500,000 to acquire a single she-camel that suits his budget and meets the beauty standards he is looking for. So, “Faisal” took him to the farm of the owner, “Eid Al-Otaibi” to select from a single camel from the Tamamyat bloodline.  When he bought it, it was only a simple investment in a field in which the value if a single camel reached three million riyals.

In his first experience, his friend “Faisal Al-Qahtani” believes that Joseph would not pay more as he is not so experienced in this hobby as an Arab, but he will gradually enhance his selection – hopefully – as he explores the field. Al Qahtani confirms that what was achieved for Joseph represents the transmission of the Saudi heritage with its depth to investors, and that their desire goes beyond the principle of buying and selling into opening new fields.

Al-Qahtani mentions that investors have a further view of the field, as they focus on its revenues and how to increase them through establishing farms that produce milk, conducting research related to the medical field, and taking advantage of the “virgin she-camel urine” in treating some types of cancer.  He added that next year will witness attracting “Robert”, a professor of finance at Harvard university, to this field as well as our friend and British businessman, Simon, as he is looking forward to investing in this field.