A trade-export ban in African countries could affect the price of domestic alpha!
They want to ban the export of all the products of the donkey, including donkey skins, abroad, with the view that the African countries are influenced by some Western environmental organizations, and these Western organizations will directly affect the needs of our country's donkey skins.
Someone also wondered, is it not enough for our own donkeys, and why should we import donkeys from Africa not thousands of miles away?
15 Years of Export Ban
The export ban was approved at the African Union meeting early last year. According to the unanimous decision made by African Union countries, the export trade of donkey skins will be banned in the next 15 years.
In fact, before the ban was introduced, African countries were already working on the protection of donkeys, and at the end of 2022, a "pan-African donkeys conference" was held in Tanzania.
So, is there any influence exerted by western environmental organizations behind this? It does exist, but it is the African countries themselves that really make decisions and affect the donkey skin trade, and the real factor is not the protection of donkeys, but the protection of local people's livelihoods.
Also in 2019, an organization called "Donkey's Sanctuary" released a report pointing out that the number of donkeys in the world is declining, mainly related to the development of donkey-hide gelatin industry in China. Western media, including the BBC, reprinted this report, which caused crisis anxiety about the number of donkeys.
Every year, the demand for donkey leather in our country is indeed great, and over the past 20 years it has been true that it has been imported mainly from Africa.But local farmers in Africa are also very welcome to trade in donkey leather, because many donkey farmers can get a good reward from it.
In Botswana, for example, the country once banned the export of donkey skins in 2017, and farmers did not want to, so lobbying groups, eventually prompting the government to lift the previous ban.
So, does this mean that the sudden ban in Africa is the result of Westerners getting in the way? Actually, it is not. It is also Africans' own decision to introduce a ban now.
Because Africans have found in recent years that too much donkey skins are exported, which eventually affects the relationship between supply and demand, resulting in the price of donkeys continuing to rise, which also affects the livelihood of a large number of farmers.
Since most African countries are still poor, especially in rural areas, donkeys are important means of production and transportation for farmers. In some traffic-closed mountainous areas, donkeys are important economic vitalities for every farmer. This is the case as in our early years, when the economy was not yet developed, in rural areas in the north, donkeys were important means of transportation.
Because of this, many countries in Africa have gradually realized that they can no longer kill donkeys and sell their skins, otherwise farmers' livelihood will be seriously disturbed and affected. Therefore, African countries have introduced a ban on donkey skin.
Then the second question arises: Can we not supply donkey leather ourselves, and why not import from abroad?
From over 10 million to over 1 million.
In fact, the meat of the donkey is delicious, but for a long time, the meat of the donkey is not the main meat consumed in our country. Although there is a burning donkey in the northern region, the actual consumption of the year is not too large, and the main consumption of the donkey in our country is the algae.
Foreign environmental organization says that our country needs at least 4 million or even more donkeys a year, but this number is exaggerated. According to estimates of some in-house people, our country's annual demand for aloe is not more than 2 million donkeys.
Although the number is twice as low, the actual number of domestic donkeys now does not meet the demand for donkeys.Northern rural netizens must be deeply experienced, you think, how long have they not seen donkeys?
After the 1980s in the north also saw a large number of donkeys as a child, some used to pull cars, some used to grind, some donkeys are the main foot tools of the peasants, and these donkeys come basically not for food, are the means of production and transportation, belonging to the proper labor force.
Earlier, China was the world's largest donkey farmer, with 11.2 million donkeys at peak, accounting for 25% of the total number of donkeys worldwide.
In 1970 and 1975, the size of donkeys in China was 8.4 million and 8.127 million respectively. By the 1980s, the scale of donkeys in China gradually dropped to more than 7 million. Up to now, the scale of donkeys across the country has shrunk, with only 2.678 million in 2017.
In 2021, the size of the nation's donkey fell again to 196,7 million, and in 2022 further dropped to 173 million. From more than 10 million in the peak period to more than 1 million, the decline was great. But this is also an objective rule, because in the last few decades, our economy has been continuously developing, and the demand for donkey in rural areas has decreased more and more.
In contrast, more than 5 million donkeys are slaughtered every year in China, which not only ensures the demand for donkey-hide gelatin, but also ensures part of the food demand. In other words, even if all the donkeys in the country are killed, the annual demand cannot be guaranteed. So in the past years, we can only make up for the difference through imports.
Certainly someone will say that since the need for donkeys is so big, it is not very profitable to raise donkeys now?
The cost of owls is high.
Why are there fewer and fewer scattered donkeys?Because farmers are entering the city in large numbers.The rate of urbanization in our country is rising, even those who remain in the countryside, except for the small number of scattered households in the north, the vast majority of farmers have long been scattered donkeys.
In the past, farmers mainly used donkeys as labor force in free range, and the breeding cycle was very long, so farmers didn't have to worry about the cost. Each donkey has been ordered for so long and done so much farm work, and the cost has already been earned.
Now, if the concentrated breeding is carried out, the cost can't be offset, because the concentrated breeding donkeys are definitely not used to work with them. Farmers hope to sell them as soon as possible, so as to improve the breeding efficiency. But the problem is that the feeding cycle of donkeys is very long.
If an adult donkey breeds, the pregnancy period alone is as long as 12 months, and it can only give birth to one baby at a time. Young donkeys can only be weaned in half a year, and they must be raised at least until they are 4 years old before they can be slaughtered. The feeding cycle is so long, so it is not cost-effective at all in terms of time cost.
Moreover, the price of the donkey is not low, a donkey of more than 200 kilograms, the price is about 1,500. if raised, the cost of at least $ 5 per day. Comprehensively, whether it is raised for meat or donkey skin, it is not too expensive.
The most important thing is that the vast majority of farmers are going to raise pig cattle and sheep these fast-growing cattle. The market for donkeys can not actually hold so many farmers. And the number of donkeys in the past is because of the scattering. Furthermore, the donkeys in the past were mainly labor, not for eating.
In this way, there are not many large-scale donkey farmers in China, and free-range donkey farmers are almost extinct. In order to guarantee the annual demand, we can only import. African countries have introduced bans, and donkey skins can also be obtained from other countries.
Annual imports exceed 133 million units.
Africa has surpassed Asia since 2008 to become the world’s largest donkey farm region. So far, about two-thirds of the world’s donkeys live in Africa. The world’s total donkey population is approximately 53 million.
In 2023, China's total amount of donkey leather imported was 133,9730, of which 784,221 were imported from Africa, accounting for 58,5% of imports.
There are data showing that in the future, China's imports will gradually move from Africa to the Asian region, our neighbor Pakistan is the world's top 5 country in total number of donkeys, the other four countries are Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Mexico, the total size of these five countries donkeys in the world accounted for more than 60%.
Taking Pakistan as an example, the country has always wanted to boost economic growth through the development of agriculture and livestock, so donkey exports have become an important part of Pakistan’s exports to our country.
In the two regions of Punjab province and Keibalpurshtu province, there are also farms dedicated to exporting donkeys to our country, so in the future, the size of Pakistani donkeys should grow if market demand remains unchanged.
But one must also realize that China is almost the only country in the world that imports donkey leather, so it’s easy for some nonsensical people in the West to use this to hype.
Some domestic enterprises have also taken corresponding measures for this purpose. They choose those big donkey-raising countries to set up local farms, and they will also process donkey skins and donkey meat in a way acceptable to local people, so as to eliminate misunderstandings as much as possible and let foreigners understand what our needs are. If the West wants to use this hype, there will be no chance.
And from a domestic perspective, as the urbanization process continues to rise, all the breeding households in the future will disappear, and the need for donkeys will change completely.That is why the price of donkeys has long risen, because compared to other livestock, the mass breeding of donkeys has always been small.
conclusion
Current breeding is mainly concentrated in the north and in some northwestern pastoral areas, such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, where breeding is small and fairly decentralized.
More and more merchants are not willing to go to the household to collect donkeys, so as a result, the donkeys resources are also a bit exhausted, so if you want to find donkeys, the cost will rise further.
The growth cycle of the donkey is also long, a donkey can live at least 30 years, but a mother donkey can only produce a dozen little donkeys in its lifetime.So from the needs of modern people, the attributes of the donkey are increasingly not meeting human needs.
But in essence, the donkey originally belonged to the labor force, its practical value and other values were a little developed, the structure of the whole society was changing, and the nature of the demand for the donkey naturally changed.
References:
"How does the African Union's ban on donkey skin exports affect China's donkey-hide gelatin industry?" China Business News February 29, 2024
“Why does the burning of donkey beef cost more and more?” China Veterinary Journal November 28, 2024
“Is China’s Aloe production threatening the world’s number of donkeys?” Press Release March 10, 2020