China Expresses Interest To Import Donkey, Dogs From Cash-Strapped Pakistan — Here's Why

China's keen interest in donkeys is because it uses Gelatin or "Ejiao" prepared from its skin to manufacture expensive medicines.

A displaced man rides a donkey, followed by his dog (Source: File photo/AFP)

New Delhi: As Pakistan is currently facing an economic crisis due to the floods, the neighboring country China has shown its interest in importing donkeys and dogs from Pakistan, officials in Pakistan told a parliamentary committee, as reported by PTI. According to the information, on Monday, officials of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Commerce and the Senate had a briefing on imports and export. During this, one of its members, Dinesh Kumar an official of the Ministry of Commerce, said that China has shown interest in importing donkeys as well as dogs from Pakistan.

Senator Abdul Qadir also told the committee that the Chinese ambassador had talked about exporting meat from Pakistan several times in the past. On this one of the committee members suggested that since the animals in neighboring Afghanistan are cheaper than in Pakistan, Pakistan can import donkeys from Afghanistan and later export the meat to China.

On his suggestion, the commerce ministry officials told the committee that the import of animals from Afghanistan has been temporarily banned. Pakistan took this step because there were cases of lumpy skin disease in the animals of Afghanistan.

China's keen interest in donkeys is because it uses gelatin or "Ejiao" prepared from its skin to manufacture expensive medicines. It has medicinal properties and is traditionally used to nourish the blood and enhance the immune system.

This is not the first time that China has shown interest in buying animals from Pakistan. Even before this, Pakistan has exported animals to China. 

According to the economic survey released by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail in June this year, Pakistan comes third among the countries in the world that have the most donkeys. 

There are currently 5.7 million animals in Pakistan, as per the survey. 

Last year, the Punjab government set up a 3,000-acre donkey farm in Okara district of Punjab province with the intention of exporting donkeys to help the country's foreign cash reserves.