Want to buy a camel? Now there’s an app for that

A Digital Bazaar for the Gulf’s Most Iconic Animal

Healfromzero.com – For millennia, the camel has been woven into the fabric of daily life across the Arabian Peninsula. These humped herbivores once carried caravans across scorching dunes, supplied families with milk, meat, leather, and wool, and anchored an entire economy of pastoral survival. Today, their role has shifted considerably. In the emirate of Abu Dhabi alone, roughly 500,000 camels roam the landscape, sustaining industries centered on dairy production, competitive racing, and elaborate beauty contests that draw enormous prize pools. The animals remain a magnet for visitors who flock to desert tours and the bustling livestock bazaars of cities like Al Ain, where traders from across the region have long haggled over prices beneath the open sky.

Yet the way camels change hands is undergoing a quiet revolution. In late 2024, a startup called Hign Al Khaleej — a name that translates loosely as “Gulf camels” — rolled out a digital platform designed to let buyers, sellers, and auctioneers transact without hauling animals across borders in pickup trucks. By 2025, the company reported more than 15,000 registered users spanning its mobile application and web interface, according to founder and chief executive Jaber Al Ahbabi.

Why the Old Way Broke Down

Al Ahbabi grew up in a household that owned and raced camels, giving him an intimate understanding of how transactions were conducted before smartphones entered the fold. He describes the legacy process as both costly and inefficient. A seller wishing to offload an animal might load it into a truck and drive considerable distances to meet prospective buyers, with no assurance the sale would close. On the buying side, a customer interested in stock from Saudi Arabia could find themselves flying to the kingdom to inspect animals in person, often with little advance information about what was available. Because camels are typically housed and traded in desert perimeters well outside urban centers, the logistics compound the problem.

“It’s a traditional activity deeply rooted in our history and culture, so the system to buy and sell camels is quite old school.”

For many participants, the expense and complexity of face-to-face dealings had become prohibitive. Al Ahbabi, a former government employee who now devotes his full attention to the platform, saw an opening to modernize the trade without erasing its cultural weight.

How the Marketplace Operates

At present, approximately 3,300 camels are listed for sale across the digital marketplace. The animals are situated in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait. Each listing carries structured data on the animal’s age, breeding lineage, and veterinary history, giving buyers a level of transparency that the open-air bazaar never provided. To transact, users must register their mobile phone number and a government-issued identification number, introducing a basic layer of vetting into what was previously an entirely informal exchange.

The platform also extends beyond the sale of live animals. Users can purchase camel feed and pharmaceuticals, browse job postings tied to the industry — including positions as trainers and shepherds — and participate in auctions. Al Ahbabi frames the design philosophy simply:

“I put everything a camel buyer or seller might need in one place to keep it as safe and efficient as possible.”

Since launch, roughly 3,000 camels have already changed ownership through the app, a figure that signals meaningful adoption within a single year of operation.

The Economics of Elite Camels

The financial stakes in the camel world are far from trivial. At a prominent 2025 auction in Abu Dhabi, fifteen animals fetched a combined AED 1.77 million (approximately $500,000). One individual camel, following an intense bidding contest, cleared at AED 500,000 (around $136,000), local media noted. At the upper echelon, elite specimens have traded for millions of dirhams. The prize structures at major events amplify the market’s intensity: this year’s Al Dhafra Camel Festival in Abu Dhabi, scheduled to run from late October through mid-January, is offering AED 97 million (roughly $26.4 million) in beauty-competition winnings alone. Camel racing, equally popular across the Gulf, carries its own substantial purse structures. These figures sustain a vibrant secondary market in which pedigree, conformation, and competitive record drive valuations well beyond the utility of milk or meat.

Growth, Backing, and Ambition

Al Ahbabi initially resisted outside capital, citing his lack of experience in the technology sector and a preference to avoid debt. Organic user growth, however, has shifted his calculus. In May, Hign Al Khaleej was named among seventeen Al Ain-based firms selected by the tech ecosystem Hub71 and the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development to enter a three-month startup development program. At the program’s July demo day, the company placed third, earning AED 40,000 (approximately $10,000) in in-kind support.

Looking ahead, the founder’s ambition extends well beyond livestock transactions. He envisions the platform as the default destination for anyone with an interest in camels — whether purchasing an animal, sourcing supplies, or seeking employment in the sector.

“I want anyone who has an interest in camels, and for anyone who wants a camel or anything for camels to go straight to Hign Al Khaleej.”

Whether a digital marketplace can fully absorb the relational, tactile, and culturally embedded dimensions of a trade that has persisted for centuries remains an open question. What is clear is that the Gulf’s camel economy, long conducted through word of mouth and desert rendezvous, now has a searchable, verifiable, and geographically unbounded alternative — and tens of thousands of users have already logged in.