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Following the Pakistan government’s decision to export more donkeys to China, the latter’s skyrocketing demand for donkey hide has once entered the spotlight, prompting many experts to call for advanced genetic technologies to solve the domestic shortage.

In order to attract more investment from China, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government in Pakistan is planning to breed more donkeys, as the animal’s hide can be boiled to produce gelatin, which is a key ingredient in the traditional Chinese medicine e'jiao, the Express Tribune, a Pakistani newspaper, reported on on April 8.

“China’s e'jiao manufacturing relies heavily on imported donkey hides. Very few domestic livestock farms are willing to breed donkeys, as the industry offers relatively slim profits. Most customers only want the animal’s hide, as the consumption of donkey meat and milk is not common in China,” Huang Jinming, an expert in donkey breeding, told the Science and Technology Daily.

China needs around 4 million more donkeys each year to satisfy market demand, as the nation’s annual e'jiao production is estimated at more than 5,000 tons. However, the actual supply is only around 1.8 million. Meanwhile, the donkey population in China has dropped from 12.7 million in 1954 to just 6 million in 2013, and is still falling by 3 to 5 percent annually, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to Huang, breeding donkeys requires more time and money than is required to breed other livestock, and the animal is also less fertile. Together, these factors have contributed to the downsizing of the domestic donkey-breeding industry.

“China should develop genetic technologies to promote donkey breeding rather than rely on imports, as this would address the foundation of the shortage,” he added.

The country has been working on genetic technologies to breed “super donkeys” in recent years. Dong’e E'jiao, one of China’s largest manufacturers of e'jiao products, has cooperated on research with several universities since 2014, with a focus on the genetic mapping of donkeys. The research aims to breed super donkeys, whose life cycle is shorter than that of normal donkeys. The super donkeys would also sport thicker hides.