This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The demand for donkey hides has grown exponentially over the past 15 years, driven mainly by demand from China. Lauren Johnston is a specialist on China trade with Africa.
She has spent several years looking into the donkey trade, and has just published a book, "China, Africa and the Market for Donkeys." She answers questions about what she found. The demand is driven almost exclusively by China. The reason is that there's an ancient traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao, pronounced "e-jyow," that is now consumed by tens of millions of Chinese women.
Ejiao is a donkey hide gelatin-based tonic for the blood. For millennia, it has been used to treat fatigue, dizziness, dry cough and irregular bleeding, and to support female wellness. For most of that time, the elixir was handmade and consumed by a small circle of imperial elites.
Only over the last few decades did production become industrially scaled. I'm an economist rather than a nutritional scientist, but my understanding is that ejiao's medicinal reputation is associated with its collagen-rich composition and the bioactive peptides produced during processing, alongside claims about the mineral properties of the water used in its production. While pharmacological research has identified potentially beneficial properties, the extent to which these translate into clinically established therapeutic effects remains contested.
There is also a broader question as to whether comparable benefits could be obtained from alternative, more sustainable sources of collagen or related compounds. The market for ejiao was until recently mainly medicinal. My book details the recent—and stunning—commercialization of ejiao and its transformation into an array of products, from cakes and drinks to cosmetics and other wellness products.
While ejiao sells at accessible prices in pharmacies both over the counter and by prescription, it also sells for thousands of renminbi at the premium end of the market. The lead producer, Dong'e Ejiao, spearheaded premium-end price increases greater than those enjoyed by Shanghai and Beijing property owners over the 2000s and 2010s. There is also demand for it in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.S., Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia.
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