China has shown interest in importing donkeys and dogs from Pakistan.
It happened during Monday’s meeting, of the Senate Standing Committee’s one of its members, Dinesh Kumar said that China has expressed interest in importing donkeys as well as dogs from Pakistan.
Senator Abdul Qadir also informed the committee that the Chinese ambassador had also talked about exporting meat from Pakistan several times. One of the members of the committee also suggested that since animals are comparatively cheaper in Afghanistan, Pakistan can import from there and then export the meat to China.
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However, the committee was informed by the officials of the commerce ministry that animal import from Afghanistan has been temporarily banned as there have been reports of lumpy skin disease among animals in the neighbouring country.
China’s keen interest in donkeys is because they use the animal’s hide in manufacturing traditional Chinese medicines, “eijao” or donkey-hide gelatin that supposedly has medicinal properties, traditionally used to nourish the blood and enhance the immune system.
Pakistan, which has the world’s third largest population of donkeys, currently having 5.7 million animals, has earlier also exported the animals to China.
