Recently, the news about the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government signing an agreement with China to export live donkeys has been making rounds. The social media users and addicts have picked up this news and discussed it tongue in cheek and shared countless jokes coined around this development. The question here is why out of all the animals it’s the donkey that is getting so much importance?
BUSINESS
Recently, the news about the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government signing an agreement with China to export live donkeys has been making rounds. The social media users and addicts have picked up this news and discussed it tongue in cheek and shared countless jokes coined around this development. The question here is why out of all the animals it’s the donkey that is getting so much importance?
The answer follows here. Over the last couple of years, donkeys have become a highly precious commodity as their skins are high in demand in China and fetching premium prices. A quality donkey skin that would cost around Rs500 to Rs800 in Pakistan a few years back is being purchased by Chinese traders and their front-men in the country for a whopping Rs20,000 to Rs25,000. The skins are expensive as the gel extracted from these skins is used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The prospects of earning high profits have led numerous persons to try their luck in this trade. Due to this, thefts of donkeys and their slaughtering just for their skin has become too common and resulted in a drastic fall in donkey population within the country. The meat is either discarded or as per reports sold as mutton and beef depending on the size of the donkey.
The rationale explained for the above-mentioned initiative is to develop a formal mechanism to breed donkeys with a specific purpose to export these to China and keep their numbers in the country rising as well.
The latest is that while KP is at a planning stage, Punjab has already started, though silently, a unique project titled “Donkey Conservation and Breed Improvement Farms” at Bahadurnagar in Okara, at an estimated cost of Rs68.172 million. Being executed by the Livestock and Dairy Development Department, government of Punjab, the project aims at improving the breed of donkeys, developing proper feeding strategies to exploit their reproductive and work potential, creating a National Donkey Club (NDC) for enhancing export potential amongst donkey producers and their use in races as sports animals.
Dr Asif Sahi, registrar, Punjab Livestock Breeding Services Authority, tells Money Matters that under this initiative the donkey population of different districts is being registered with the cooperation of the concerned District Livestock Officers (DLOs). “A target has been set to increase these numbers over time.” To achieve this objective, Sahi says, a stock of high quality studs has been managed with an aim to rent these out to donkey farmers and discourage stray mating.
The farmers who opt for donkey breeding will be given financial incentives because they are no more rearing donkeys, mainly due to mechanisation and their theft and slaughtering for skin trade, he adds. Sahi says prospects are high that the country will be exporting live donkeys to China where their skins would be used for making medicines and meat for human consumption. This will help the country increase its exports and earn precious foreign exchange, he adds.
The project has multiple goals that it wants to achieve. For example, its PC-1 mentions: “…Donkeys are ignored due to mechanisation and their 40 per cent population has decreased due to their slaughtering for export of their skin. On the other hand, donkeys are still being used as major cart power in villages and cities for transportation of goods and a good source of livelihood for many families. There is a need for conservation of these animals as they are used in fruit and vegetable markets, coal mines, textile industry, brick kiln industry, in the production of mules and for garbage collection, etc.
The PC-1 adds that: “Despite the switch to modern means of transportation, machines never replace the cheaper source (donkeys) for transportation in undulated far flung difficult areas. Hence, donkey is designated as best earth moving machinery, but is still one of the neglected as compared to cattle, sheep and goat in all spheres by the government despite of his services ie pulling cart, transportation of luggage from one place to other, and (for fetching) utilities to the people in hilly areas when any disaster happens.”
So, one has to believe that the loss of these highly useful animals to skin trade mafias is compromising the interests of many, especially the poor households for who these are nothing less than earning family members. Against this backdrop, one can recall the statement of the federal commerce minister Khurram Dastgir who informed the National Assembly that around 200,000 donkey hides had been exported from Pakistan during the previous three years. These were the hides exported through the formal channels and the number of those traded in grey market could be much higher.
Ejiao - the main culprit behind the ruthless slaughter of donkeys worldwide - is the rubbery substance extracted from boiled donkey skin. It is also called donkey gel or ass gel. It is being used in Chinese medicine for around 2000 years or more and reportedly replenishes blood, cures severe coughs and insomnia, has anti-ageing properties, increases libido, gives general boost to its users, treats diseases specific to women, cures anaemia, increases blood count and so on.
Due to the increase in purchasing power of Chinese people and the steady growth of the middle class there, the demand for this expensive medicine has increased manifold and so for the donkey skin. The number of donkeys has come down in China due to mechanisation, so it has turned to the outer world to fulfil its appetite for this raw material. As per a report of the Cable News Network (CNN), the population of donkeys in China has fallen from 11 million to six million since the 1990s. Several African countries have faced the brunt and imposed a ban on export of donkey hides after they found the local populations of donkeys dwindling due to this reason.
Nasim Sadiq, secretary livestock, Punjab, is worried about the alarming decrease in the number of donkeys in the country. He says they are required as a source of livelihood for people as well as for infrastructural development projects, including the building of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). In their absence it is impossible to transport construction material especially in difficult terrains.
He shares that the department's officials have taken urine samples of donkeys in order to find out the nature of diseases among them. Based on these findings, he says, the government is vaccinating and medically treating these animals to reduce morbidity among them and protect the livelihood of people mostly living at or under subsistence level.
Mohsin Bhatti, who runs Consumer Solidarity System - a non-profit working for consumers’ rights, says though a ban has been imposed on export of donkey skin, its trade is flourishing in the grey market. These are being smuggled out and a proof of it is that a huge cache of skins was confiscated in Karachi much after the imposition of the ban, he adds.
Bhatti says apart from use in medicines, the donkey hides are treated in China and used in upholstery, wrongly declared to be made from horse skin. He says while in case of slaughter of other animals' meat is the main product and skin is a by-product, in case of donkeys it is otherwise. So, when skin is removed for export, the meat of donkeys reaches the market and mostly sold in minced form.
He says recently there have been amendments in the Punjab Animal Slaughter Control Act which makes slaughtering of donkeys and sale of their meat a non bailable offence and prescribes harsh punishments including fines and imprisonment. It is hoped things will improve after enforcement of this law but results would be more encouraging if mafias operating in the grey market were apprehended.
He suggested having formal agreements for controlled export of skins of only those donkeys that die a natural death or export of live donkeys to China.
At the moment, a lot of Chinese traders have filed cases in courts against tannery owners of Kasur who they allege have not supplied donkey hides to them in quantities they had promised. The traders defend themselves saying it is not possible to do this after imposition of the ban.
The writer is a staff member
Donkey population China has fallen from 11 million to six million since the 1990s. Several African countries have faced the brunt and imposed a ban on export of donkey hides after they found the local populations of donkeys dwindling due to this reason
