Chinese demand drives Pakistan’s emerging donkey meat, hide export industry

Profit reported, citing Bloomberg, that a rising Chinese appetite for donkey products is opening a fresh export trade in Pakistan. Hangeng Group, which has an abattoir and processing units in Balochistan, is handling hundreds of donkeys bound for China. Its facility near Gwadar intends to multiply daily slaughter capacity fourfold, reaching 800 animals, within months.

Donkey meat is not eaten locally for religious reasons but is seen as a treat in some Chinese regions, where hides go into ejiao, a collagen-based product used in traditional medicine. Hangeng expects monthly foreign-exchange receipts of about $5 million within six months, with possible growth to $7 million by the two-year mark. Permission has been given to two or three additional Chinese companies to open rearing sites and abattoirs at Gwadar.

Chinese buyers are turning to overseas suppliers because China's own donkey population has dropped, and Africa has been constrained by a continent-wide moratorium the African Union backed in 2024 over falling numbers. The Pakistan Economic Survey put the national donkey stock above 6 million in 2025. Hangeng began building the venture six years ago, has invested about $50 million so far, employs around 500 local workers, and has shipped five containers, the first delivered to China's Tianjin port in June.