In order to export live donkey’s to China, Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa govt is planning to start a project named as ‘Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa-China Sustainable Donkey Development Programme’. The estimated cost of donkey breeding project is Rs 1 billion and will be one of the various investments made under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor through which China is investing $50-odd billion in Pakistan.

The reason for investing huge amount of money in the province is because of gelatin, a component often used in Chinese medicine and is made from donkey’s hide and is of high value.

The official document on the donkey export plan said, “The proposed project will help improve the socio-economic status of donkey-rearing communities by improving the health and production of local donkeys…New technologies will be introduced and work will be done on capacity building of donkey breeders and services they provide.”

There has been more demand for donkeys in China since the two countries Niger and Burkina Faso has stopped animal export as they were one of the top donkey suppliers to China.

As per a report published in Pakistan English daily The Express Tribune a source told after China investing such huge amount the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government sooner will start a project in order to increase population of donkey’s in the area.

The provincial government is all set to “develop linkages in order to improve prices of donkeys and enhance the income of breeders and traders”, the document stated.

Since 1990s, there has been continous fall in the population of donkey’s in China and is also declining at the 300,000 every year . Earlier, China’s major donkey importing countries were Niger and Burkina Faso but now these two countries have also banned exporting of donkeys.