一位埃及商人近期向澳大利亚某地方议会提交申请，希望在野生骆驼密集的南部地区开设骆驼屠宰场和肉产品加工厂，并称此举不但能解决当地的生态问题，同时还能提供300个工作岗位。如果这项申请获准，澳大利亚有望于2012年开始对外出口骆驼肉。

Move over, beef. Camel meat could become the newest Australian export as early as 2012 if an Egyptian businessman is successful with his bid to open a slaughterhouse（屠宰场） and meat processing plant in a rural South Australian town.

Magdy El Ashram's ambitions would not only bring camel meat, which he says is healthier than beef, to dinner tables around the world, it would also reduce a feral（野生的） camel population in the Australian outback that has caused serious ecological¹ problems, and create up to 300 jobs in a place that badly needs them.

"Camel meat is much better than beef...it's the lesser² fat than all the meat kingdom. If you put beef, mutton, kangaroo, emu any meat, then camel meat will be the lesser fat than all of them," he said.

"Camel is a popular food in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and Australia has the resources to provide meat to people who like it."

Originally introduced in 1840, mainly from India to provide transport, there are currently more than 1 million feral camels roaming over 3 million square km of outback Australia, breeding at a rate that doubles their population every nine years.

The Australian Federal Government has provided A$19 million ($20 million)over four years to assist in managing feral camels, and a camel culling³ program began in 2010. The animals cause more than A$10 million a year in damage to fragile outback ecosystems⁴.

"Controlling the numbers decreases the pressure on the landscape in dry conditions and will result in fewer camels dying very cruelly due to starvation, dehydration⁵（脱水） and trampling," said Jane Ferguson, Managing Director at Ninti One Limited, a management firm in charge of the Australian Feral Camel Managing Project.

"Commercial camel operations need to be driven by economic considerations and need to address the animal welfare issues associated with mustering⁶ and transporting wild camels over large distances."