FG ignores China’s huge market for donkey skin, insists on export prohibition

The Federal Government has maintained that donkey hide remains on the export prohibition list, despite China’s huge demand.

According to Donkey Sanctuary, the animal welfare group, China’s demand for donkey skin is about five million annually, as they are used to make traditional medicine called ‘Ejiao’, which is a remedy for health troubles ranging from colds to aging.

The Federal Government, in an effort to address concerns about the possible extinction of the animal in the nearest future, due to increasing global demand, passed the ‘Donkey Export and Killing (prohibition) Bill’ into law in 2019.

The bill provides a 10-year sentence for anyone who kills, knowingly moves, delivers, receives, possesses, sells, or donates a donkey to be slaughtered either for human consumption or as food to other animals.

Speaking on the passage of the bill, Vitalis Ike, the deputy chairman of Donkey Skin Processors, Marketers and Exporters Association of Nigeria, argued that the demand for donkey skin was an opportunity for Nigeria to increase production and generate foreign exchange.

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According to him, the entire donkey value chain provides employment opportunities for no less than 10,000 Nigerians.

However, the director-general of the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service, Vincent Isegbe on Tuesday reiterated that donkey hide remains on the export prohibition list, stressing that the resumption of the certification of that commodity for export hinges on the rebound of the Nigerian donkey herd which is still classified as an endangered species.

According to him, efforts were still ongoing to chart a course toward restocking the donkeys through breeding and ranching in order to put the animals beyond the threat of extinction.

“The decline of the donkey population in Nigeria was driven by surging demand for Donkey Hide in Asia. The product is used in making potions and items presumed to have therapeutic and cosmetic value.

“The government would consider delisting Donkey Hide from the contraband category only after the scale has tilted in favour of the recovery of the Nigerian donkeys,” he said.