How farmers lose billions in donkey meat export craze

The advent of donkey slaughterhouses in Kenya elicited hope of better fortunes among keepers of the domestic animal. However, a recent study paints a gloomy picture of the owners losing much than what they would have earned should they have not sold their beasts of burden for slaughtering.

A report published by the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro) and Brooke East Africa reveals that farmers lose Sh11,390 on every working donkey that is offered for slaughter.

The report indicates that between April 2016 and December this year, farmers are projected to have lost Sh28.3 billion.

“Donkey keepers and users whose livelihoods depended on the donkey earned an average of Sh11,390 per month from providing transportation services, while labourers in the donkey abattoirs earned an average of Sh8,460 per month,” says the report.

“Assuming that 25 percent (75,494) of the donkeys slaughtered were working donkeys, and would otherwise have been used to generate a mean monthly income of Sh11,390, the income foregone was valued at Sh28.3 billion during the reference period,” it added.

Kenya has four licensed donkey abattoirs that have since 2016 been allowed to slaughter and export the donkey products.

Donkey comes in hand in rural areas where they are preferred mode of transport on bad roads where vehicles cannot access.

The study revealed that 301,977 donkeys were slaughtered since commissioning of export donkey abattoirs in Kenya with 6.9 percent slaughtered in 2016, 40.3 percent in 2017 and 52.8 percent in 2018.

More than 98 percent of the donkeys that are slaughtered are destined to China with high demand for the animal skin leading to high cases of theft and smuggling.

Many of them end up in an eastern town called Dong’e, China, where most of the world’s ejiao — a traditional medicine made from gelatin extracted from boiled donkey hides — is made.

Ejiao was in the past prescribed primarily to supplement lost blood but, today, it is sought for several uses, ranging from delaying ageing and increasing libido to treating side effects of chemotherapy and preventing infertility, miscarriage and menstrual irregularity.

It is estimated that the demand for ejiao has risen to fetch around $400 (Sh40,000) per pound, up from $9 (Sh900) per pound previously.

Donkey meat is also a popular food, but a huge drop in the number of Chinese donkeys and the fact they are slow to reproduce has forced suppliers to look elsewhere.

Africa has particularly been badly hit because the animals are such an important part of life for transport and farming — particularly in poorer communities.

Kenya is among the African nations that have in recent years been flooded by Chinese traders in search of donkey skin.

An analysis of data on exported donkey meat shows a discrepancy of 21,030 animals in comparison to the number of those slaughtered as reported in the abattoirs pointing to cases of smuggling.

“Whether this difference is due to underreporting by the abattoirs, or receiving meat from donkeys slaughtered elsewhere, or existence of another exporter remains an empirical question,” notes the study.

The report recommends that an audit of actors along the donkey value chain to ascertain compliance to set rules and regulations, including reporting is put in place.

The donkey skin and meat are exported unprocessed even though opportunities to add value to these products locally before export exist and should be explored to fetch higher revenues by actors along the donkey value chain.

Fred Ochieng, Chief Executive, Brooke East Africa called for a crackdown on cross-border smuggling of donkeys into Kenya for their skins.

The donkey was gazetted as a food animal in 1999 to curb bush slaughter and improve food safety.

However, increased global demand for donkey skin led to the establishment and licensing of donkey slaughterhouses.

The Kalro says the population of donkeys had been falling since the slaughterhouses were opened in 2016, with the animals expected to be extinct by 2023 if their slaughter is not regulated.

Monica Michomo, director at the Kalro Veterinary Research Institute, says if the regulation would not be implemented, then the institute would call for the ban of donkey slaughtering.

“We need to regulate donkey killing at the export slaughterhouses until a donkey breeding or multiplication programme has been put in place to ensure its sustainability,” says Dr Michomo.